Fire at Custom Engineered Wheels causes major damage
Posted on June 25, 2016 by Dennis Seid
Thomas Wells
Tupelo firefighter Joseph Kent and a employee of Custom Engineered Wheels look at the damage caused by a Wednesday night fire at the company’s plant on Eason Boulevard in Tupelo.
By Dennis Seid
Daily Journal
TUPELO – An overnight fire at Custom Engineered Wheels has been ruled an accident, but it potentially has caused millions of dollars in damage.
The Tupelo Fire Department received a call at 9:48 p.m. Thursday to fight the fire at the 36,000-square-foot plant on North Eason Boulevard.
Fourteen workers were in the building at the time.
“One of my maintenance men noticed it, tried to extinguish it until it got to the point that it was out of control,” said CEW plant manager Chris Marinello. “At that point, they had to abandon it.”
None of the employees were injured.
“That’s the most important thing – nobody got hurt,” Marinello said. “Everybody went home last night, and that’s what we want to keep doing.”
Thomas Wells
The fire started when a piece of equipment caught fire. Tupelo Fire Department Chief Thomas Walker said it has been ruled an accident after his own investigation and interviews with employees.
“It appears the fire started when a piece of auxiliary equipment we use to move material from the silos to the presses failed and created a situation where a flame was coming out of the bottom of it,” Marinello said. “That ignited the insulation in the wall, which ignited the OSB next to it, then it was one thing after the other and it worked itself down the side of the building.”
Four engines and two ladder trucks responded to the fire, Walker said.
One firefighter got dehydrated, went to the hospital and returned to fight the fire, he added.
While TFD crews had the fire under control by morning, flame ups still occurred because of the nature of the material that burned – plastics, rubber and other materials that produce high temperatures and noxious gases that make battling the blaze difficult.
“I’ve got an excavator coming in so we can start peeling away parts of the building to get air in there to let these firefighters get in there and put them out,” Marinello said.
The building did not have a sprinkler system. At the time it was built, it was in the county, where building codes at the time did not require them.
“I don’t know if a system would have helped anyway because of how intense the fire was,” Marinello said. “You’ve got plastics and rubber and PVC, which emits chlorine gas when it catches fire.”
Firefighters used a combination of foam and water to contain the fire.
“The guys did a great job with what they had,” Walker said. “It was a heavy fire load inside the building with a lot of plastic, rubber and high heat.”
Walker said a sprinkler system might have helped hold the fire in check until firefighters arrived.
“But once the fire got a headway on us, we couldn’t get to it,” he said. “There are still hot spots in there we’ll have to get to once the excavator gets here.”
Custom Engineered Wheels supplies wheels to lawn equipment manufacturer MTD in Verona. Marinello said he’s spoken to MTD officials.
Thomas Wells
Tupelo firefighter Joseph Kent uses a water key to shut off the water to Custom Engineered Wheels production plant on Eason Boulevard.
“We’ve talked to to MTD logistics to work out what we’re going to do,” Marinello said.
CEW has manufacturing plants in Indiana and Mexico that will fill in the gap while situation at the Tupelo plant, which opened in 2000, is assessed.
“We’ll start to take the tools and distribute them so that they we don’t impact (MTD) too much,” Marinello said.
The Tupelo plant employs nearly 100 during its busy season, and a shift will typically have between 20 to 25 people working, he said. About half that number are currently on the job.
In the aftermath of the fire, however, production employees will not be able to work, and will have to use vacation days and unemployment benefits.
Maintenance employees and material handlers will remain on the job.
“I don’t want to run the risk of losing them because it’s a small amount to pay while we’re down to keep them here because of their skill set,” Marinello said.
Marinello said he has not had a chance to get into the building and assess the complete damage of the fire.
“I’ve got $12 million to $15 million worth of equipment in the building, but I won’t know about their condition or what to do about it until I can get in there and ascertain how much damage was done,” Marinello said. “I’ll be crossing more than a few fingers, because with a fire, you never know.”
A separate warehouse building was not damaged by the fire. As products are finished, they’re shifted over to the nearby building, so CEW has inventory it can still deliver to MTD.
“We can work toward using that inventory now before we start having issues with supplies,” Marinello said.
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Fire guts Tupelo factory that made lawn tractor wheels
Posted: Saturday, June 25, 2016
Associated Press
TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — A fire at a Tupelo, Mississippi factory that makes lawn tractor wheels may have caused millions in damage.
Local media report no one was injured by the fire at Custom Engineered Wheels, which broke out late Thursday. Officials say the fire that gutted the 36,000-square foot building was accidental, starting on a piece of equipment.
The building had no sprinkler system.
Custom Engineered Wheels supplies wheels to lawn equipment maker MTD Products in Verona. Plant manager Chris Marinello says the company hopes to fill the gap with inventory in a neighboring warehouse, plus production from plants in Indiana and Mexico.
The Tupelo plant had about 50 workers. Some employees will get paid, but others won't
Marinello says the company doesn't know how much of its $15 million in equipment is salvageable.