Arson ravages Washington Furniture plant; quick rebuild planned
firefighters-fire.jpg
PONTOTOC, Miss. – Firefighters battled a blaze at Washingon Furniture's Mississippi plant Wednesday morning, which has been ruled arson by local police.
 
The fire, which was extinguished and then re-ignited after firefighters stirred up burning embers, damaged 350,000 square feet of production space at the plant and destroyed a finished goods warehouse.
 
A separate on-site 150,000-square-foot facility currently housing finished goods and another building offsite is south Pontotoc will be converted to production. The on-site building can accommodate six or seven furniture lines.
 
"We have finished goods we can ship, and the other good news is our (cut-and-sew) kit inventory is stored offsite," Lyle Harris, CEO of Washington's parent company Behold Home, told Furniture Today. "We have kits in-house and inflow to accommodate a $70 million annual run rate."
 
The company plans to be running at full capacity again in just three weeks. 
 
Plant owners are offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest and conviction. Mississippi's State Fire Marshal's Office is offering $5,000.
 
No arrests have been made at this time. 

 

.

Have something to say? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Profile picture for user rdalheim
About the author
Robert Dalheim

Robert Dalheim is an editor at the Woodworking Network. Along with publishing online news articles, he writes feature stories for the FDMC print publication. He can be reached at [email protected].