Henderson history: Huge blaze consumed Period Inc. factory at end of 1998

An exclamation mark punctuated Period Inc.

The city’s biggest fire in 20 years began just after 6 a.m. Dec. 30, 1998, at 1700 O’Byrne St. when a natural gas line burst in a large oven used to dry freshly sealed and lacquered furniture, according to the Dec. 31 Gleaner.

“It shot out like a big old torch,” said Richard Spurlin, an employee who was about 20 feet away. “It looked like hell in there,” said Geno Upps, who was working at the other end of the oven.

Employees quickly extinguished fires on the main floor of the factory but then flames got up into the space between two ceilings, rendering the sprinkler system useless.

“When it got up into the ceiling, where you couldn’t see it, that’s when we lost it,” said employee Jeff Stone.

The Henderson Fire Department sent every one of its 45 firefighters and every piece of equipment it owned. Volunteer firefighters contributed another 25 men, who helped at the scene and manned the city fire stations in case another fire broke out. The temperature was 15 degrees.

“Flames at times rose 40 feet into the air,” according to Chuck Stinnett’s article, “and a huge column of black smoke towered above the east end of town, prompting recollections of the monstrous Atlas Tack fire that took place June 16, 1978, just across the rail spur from the Period complex.”

The factory was in an odd place: between the rail spur and the main CSX railroad line. The nearest fire hydrants were two and three blocks away.

“We always anticipated that at this location, and it came true today,” said Assistant Fire Chief Dennis Leslie, who was in charge of the fire scene. He said firefighters laid more than 3,000 feet of hose, which diminished their water pressure.

Two injuries were reported. Dale Woodard, a plant maintenance worker, suffered smoke inhalation as he was shutting off electricity to the plant. He was admitted to the hospital for observation. Henderson firefighter Pat Thompson was treated and released after being hit in the face with a water cannon.

Dec. 30, 1998, was the last day of work as a firefighter for Dale Parker. He was retiring after more than 24 years on the job. “After things got settled down I was thinking, ‘what a way to go out.’”

Less than six hours after the fire began, Period owner Dale Nesbit was sitting in the board room of the Henderson Chamber of Commerce with his top managers sketching out a way for his 130 employees to keep working.

“We have a bunch of orders,” he said. “This is our biggest year ever,” with sales projected at up to $18 million, up from $10 million the previous fiscal year. The company produced solid oak furniture used by dormitories and the U.S. military.

A follow-up story that appeared Jan. 1, 1999, estimated losses at $2 million. Fortunately, “we were well insured,” Nesbit said. “We had a business interruption policy” to cover losses like the fire caused.

Capt. Larry Gibson of the fire department investigated and determined the fire was accidental. “They had a problem in there somewhere – a leaky gas line, a line that vibrated loose or broke,” he said. “We’ll probably never know, with the amount of damage.”

Offers of help from other companies flooded in, Nesbit said. “I can’t tell you the number of people who have called or contacted us.”

Nesbit later said, “All production is back up to full speed. We didn’t miss any orders. We didn’t miss any delivery dates.”

There also were other silver linings. Up to half of the furniture that was partially through the manufacturing process probably could be salvaged. And about $1 million of the company’s finished product stored in the West Kentucky Trucking warehouse at the end of Center Street was untouched.

That warehouse, along with two buildings that were saved at O’Byrne Street and another facility on Outer Fifth Street allowed the company to get back in production quickly; all full-time employees were back at work by Jan. 2. But having the operation scattered across three different locations wasn’t optimal.

The Gleaner of Jan. 7 carried a brief item noting Period Inc. had obtained a demolition permit that carried a value of $108,000. The Gleaner of Feb. 3 carried a photograph of a large machine at the fire scene “that can mulch up whole trees at a time. The machine can grind down trees as thick as 40 inches in diameter and is one of only 12 in the United States.”

The Gleaner of May 11 – less than five months after the fire – announced Period Inc. had been acquired by Krueger International, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of a wide array of products. That made some folks nervous, because it wasn’t clear whether Period would remain in Henderson, which would probably require erecting a new building.

KI, based in Green Bay and entirely owned by its employees, had plants in Wisconsin, Mississippi, North Carolina, California, Canada, Italy and Germany. It manufactured a wide range of commercial and institutional furnishings. The acquisition of Period Inc. would allow it to enter the wood furniture market.

Nesbit “had been negotiating with those folks (at Krueger International) even before the fire,” said Jimmy Jones, executive director of the Henderson Economic Development Council. Jones and other local officials were desperately trying to find a new home for Period – perhaps in Henderson Corporate Park -- but without much luck.

“One of the things we’re having to overcome is the available buildings in other areas that are around, existing facilities that are of the appropriate size,” Jones said.

Nesbit said he hoped to have a decision by “the end of May or even mid-June.”

The verdict came in The Gleaner of July 28 – Period was going to move to the former Goodyear tire plant building in Madisonville toward the end of 1999, ending a Henderson operation that dated to 1937. Nesbit and his father had acquired the business in 1986.

Nesbit said “probably 80 to 90 percent” of his workforce would remain with the company and commute. “We’re evaluating whether to set up a bus or car-pooling system to accommodate those people who don’t want to drive back and forth.”

Nesbit said the decision to relocate to Madisonville was driven by two factors that would save the firm $600,000 to $800,000 annually over 15 years.

One factor was the existence of an available 192,000-square-foot building at a price cheaper than he could erect one here. And the other was highly desirable tax credits. Hopkins County’s unemployment rate had exceeded the state average for more than five years, which made it eligible for robust tax breaks that Henderson County could not match.

100 YEARS AGO

County Judge B.S. Morris told The Gleaner in its Dec. 30, 1923, edition he was asking Henderson’s members of the General Assembly to draft legislation allowing the county to sell the local Tuberculosis Sanitarium.

It was located in the 1600 block of South Main Street, about where Chapelwood Apartments is, and the campaign to build it lasted longer than the sanitarium operated.

The facility was dedicated by Gov. A.O. Stanley March 31, 1917, and closed as a TB hospital Sept. 1, 1922.In the spring of 1924, the General Assembly authorized Henderson Fiscal Court to sell the facility, and on Nov. 25, 1924, Henderson Fiscal Court agreed to sell the property to the Henderson Country Club for $10,000.

75 YEARS AGO

The reopening of Camp Breckinridge sparked interest in major construction.

The Gleaner of Dec. 8, 1948, announced a proposal to build a $10 million housing project for soldiers at Camp Breckinridge.

A total of 2,500 houses were envisioned, which would each sell for about $4,000. The government hoped to attract contractors and financiers from the Tri-State area to build the houses to ease the housing shortage caused by the reopening of Camp Breckinridge.

Some houses were built for camp personnel, but nowhere near 2,500 of them.

50 YEARS AGO

The Henderson Youth & Community Center in Atkinson Park was missing something – teenagers, according to The Gleaner of Dec. 29, 1973.

An average of 18 showed up each day, and most of those lived in the neighborhood.

City Manager John Hefner called the trend disturbing.

“After all, the center represents an expression of the community’s interest in its young people,” he said. \"In fact, teenagers were among the most industrious fund raisers for the center when it was constructed four years ago” to replace the Pavilion that burned Nov. 10, 1967.

“The building is just sterile,” said manager Mike Thurman. “It’s concrete block with concrete and tile floors and has no atmosphere. I think the attraction of the old Pavilion was its atmosphere.”

The Henderson Youth Council abandoned efforts to keep the center open, according to an Aug. 24, 1984, article in The Gleaner. The center had been costing the city about $15,000 annually.

It is now The Gathering Place for senior citizens.

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Henderson history: Huge blaze consumed Period Inc. factory in 1998