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Dutailier fire does little damage

Fabric, cushion warehouse area affected

Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, March 5, 2008

ST-PIE, Quebec — A fire at its wood glider rocker plant here Monday evening did no major damage and won’t affect shipments to retailers, Dutailier Group President Fernand Fontaine said in a statement issued Tuesday.

He said the fire is believed to have begun at about 8 p.m. Monday outside the building in a recycling container, spreading to the exterior wall and damaging portions of a warehouse used to store fabric and cushions for wood glider rockers.

“Fortunately, there were no workers on the site at the time, so no injuries or losses of life are to be reported,” Fontaine said. “We were extremely fortunate because the firewalls and fire alarms worked perfectly to stop the spread of the fire and alert the fire department.”

He said firefighters “took exceptional care to ensure that most items in production as well as key equipment were protected from fire and water damage.” No major piece of equipment was damaged and the production line, in a separate part of the building, was spared. Damage was limited to a section of the building devoted to fabric cutting and cushion preparation.

Fontaine said the equipment from the damaged section will be relocated soon to Dutailier’s nearby production facilities in St-Hyacinthe or Ste-Anne-de-la-Pérade.

“The good news is that none of the nearly 200 jobs are at risk in the St-Pie plant and the impact on our customers will be fairly limited,” he said. “We have an ample inventory of finished products that are ready to ship and we will be able to resume production in a fairly normal fashion in a few days.”

In addition to glider rockers, Dutailier manufactures and imports accent leather upholstery and juvenile bedroom furniture.

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Dutailier fire does little damage

Mar 9, 2008

Dutailier fire does little damage

Mar 9, 2008

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