Troy Township, PA, April 29--A fire Thursday destroyed one of Barefoot Flooring's two plants in Troy Township, causing approximately $1.5 million in damage, according to the Towanda, PA, Daily and Sunday Review.
An adjacent garage and maintenance building owned by Cummings Lumber Co. also sustained considerable damage, and a storage building owned by Cummings Lumber sustained minor damage, said Roy Vargson, chief of the Troy Fire Department.
Barefoot Flooring Inc., which also has a plant in Troy Borough, will stay in business, said Scott Cummings, a supervisor at Cummings Lumber.
Cummings Lumber and Barefoot Flooring are both owned by Roy Cummings Jr. of Troy, and his sons Scott, Chip and Jay.
The 30 employees who work at the plant that was destroyed will not be laid off, Cummings said.
Barefoot Flooring Inc. plans to rebuild the plant, although it is not known yet whether it will be rebuilt at the same site, he said. "This will not set us back," Cummings said. "We'll be the same as before or better."
Barefoot Flooring produces hardwood flooring for homes.
The plant that was destroyed, which was approximately 8,000 square feet, converts raw lumber to flooring blanks, Cummings said. The two other Barefoot Flooring plants, on Chestnut Street in Troy Borough and Troy Township, process the flooring blanks into hardwood flooring, Cummings said.
Vargson said he did not know yet what caused the fire. A state police fire marshal was investigating the fire on Thursday, and had not completed his investigation, Vargson said.
Scott Cummings said the total loss from the fire is approximately $1.5 million.
Cummings Lumber and Barefoot Flooring have insurance, which will cover close to the entire loss, Scott Cummings said.
Barefoot Flooring has back-up equipment that it will use to temporarily replace the equipment lost in the fire, he said.
