Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 16, 1993 TAG: 9302160271
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FURNITURE COMPANY TO STAY CLOSED TODAY
Stanley Furniture Co. Inc. will remain closed again today, idling some 1,200 workers. One of the seven production facilities at the Stanleytown company was struck by fire Friday."We anticipate we'll start bringing back workers Wednesday," said Albert Prillaman, president. He said the shutdown was needed to allow time for an inventory of losses and planning for ways to relocate the damaged plant's production.
The plant that burned housed some offices.
Prillaman couldn't say how many workers would be brought back in the first of what he called a "phase-in situation." He said several alternatives are being considered as replacement for the 1924 facility that burned.
He said there likely will be second shifts added to other plants, and there could be some off-site production temporarily.
Dining room and occasional furniture are manufactured at the Stanleytown complex. China cabinets and wall units were made in the building that burned.
He said the company has some china cabinets stored elsewhere on the site so the fire did not deplete its supply. However, dining chairs stored in the plant were lost.
"But the factory that makes chairs wasn't bothered at all, so we can make more chairs," Prillaman said.
The fire was brought under control around midday Saturday, but the Bassett Volunteer Fire Department still had equipment at the scene Monday.
Chief Sam Pilson said there still were some "hot spots" in the burned part of the plant. He said equipment will stay at the plant until a sprinkler system can be reinstated in areas of the building that didn't burn.
The fire did not reach one end of the building, which was separated from the blaze by a fire wall.
Pilson said he had been in meetings Monday with insurance investigators. He said they have agreed on where the fire started, but not how.
Contractors and building inspectors also were at the plant Monday "working together to start the rebuilding process," said Prillaman.
The company official, who stayed at the site much of the weekend, said Saturday that the burned plant would be rebuilt.
Fire units from about 25 communities, including several in North Carolina, fought the blaze. Roanoke County supplied firefighters and equipment.
Stanleytown is in Henry County, about equidistant from Roanoke and Greensboro, N.C.
Stanley Furniture, which changed its name from Stanley Interiors in November, has been owned since January 1989 by a corporation made up of a Boston investment firm and some of the Stanley management team.
Memo: story ran on B4 in the Metro edition.