Superior Linen Service Fire Starts in Mat Area
A blaze that began in the mat-production area at Superior Linen Service’s Tulsa, OK, laundry facility will require the company to repair or replace lost product, according to company President and TRSA Immediate Past Chairman Doug Waldman. There were no injuries caused by the fire or structural damage to the facility, Waldman said.
The fire began around 9 p.m. on Feb. 12 and burned for several minutes before setting off the building’s sprinklers and fire alarm. After the alarm went off, the Tulsa Fire Department arrived in a few minutes and Superior Linen Service staff arrived at the scene, Waldman said. “By the time the fire department arrived, the sprinkler system had already extinguished the fire,” he said.
“We’re not yet positive what started the fire,” Waldman said. “No one was in the building at the time. We can see the fire on our video surveillance tapes, but the cause is not obvious.”
The Fire Department inspected and ventilated the plant after making sure the fire was completely out. The mat-production area is separate from the rest of the production area and washroom, and luckily, those areas didn’t get damaged in the blaze. However, the mat-processing area will require extensive cleaning. “Mats make a lot of smoke and black soot, so we have a lot of cleanup, and the biggest impact was that we lost a day of production,” Waldman said. “Although much of the clean product in the plant staged for delivery was wrapped, we needed to reprocess everything in the building prior to shipment. Especially since we are a TRSA Hygienically Clean facility, we would rather spend a day reprocessing everything than risk sending product to the customer that may have been affected by the smoke. Considering this was Valentine’s Day, we are fortunate to have our other two nearby plants that were able to assist.”
Unfortunately, the company lost a significant portion of its stock of mats and mops as a result of the damage and will need to replace these items. “I want to thank David Hart at Mountville, who immediately called me and expedited a replacement order for us,” Waldman said. “We had new mats delivered within a couple of days of the fire.” Golden Star also expedited an order of mops.
As for now, the process of returning to normal operations begins. The facility ran extra shifts after the fire to get back on schedule for its customers and will be back on its normal schedule by the end of the week.
TRSA has developed resources for its members to plan for the possibility of a fire or other natural disaster at their facility. TRSA’s Recommended Professional Practices for Disaster Planning provides detailed instructions for linen, uniform and facility services operators to develop tactics in line with practices common to successful emergency response: structured planning, risk identification, business continuation, employee safety and welfare, new operational problems, emergency plan implementation timing, crisis communications and business recovery planning. Click here to view the manual.