Woodland Scenics suffers major fire

That is very sad for the business and employees. Hope they can recover quickly.

Very Sad. Good that everyone is OK.

Doug

Wow. That really is very disconcerting. Hopefully, they will be able to rebuild, If not, we will have lost a major player in this hobby. At least, nobody was hurt.

I agree with Dennis. The good news is that nobody was injured (or worse). The bad news is that Woodland Scenics has been a fixture in this and many other hobbies and professions--architectural model building, for example--for many, many years.

I will make an effort to get in touch with Lynn Mitchell of Woodland Scenics tomorrow or early next week and will report whatever information I learn.

This truly is sad--and bad--news!

[Note: I have edited the title of this thread]

Very bad news, so sorry to hear!

I'm so glad everyone is safe. I hope they had good insurance so they'll be up and running soon.

David

Oh dear. This is very very bad. Loved their stuff.

Sorry to hear about the fire. About every scenic item on my layout came from them. Glad to hear no one was injured or worse. I wish them the best and speedy re-build.

TEX
Steve

Bad news, indeed.

Glad everyone at Woodland Scenics is OK.

Rusty

Glad to hear that everyone got out safely. This could leave a lot of folks scrambling for scenic materials as stores stock get depleted. Hope they are able to get back up and running soon and that all orders were backed up offsite.

I believe all scenery items on my layout (excluding automobiles) came from Woodland Scenics. I do wish them the best and will probably stock up on my most used supplies just in case they don't get back on their feet quickly (which I certainly hope not).

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Glad everyone is OK.

Tragic for the business, but no loss of life or injuries. Their website seems to be down, too, or at least I can't connect to it. They hit a home run with those three scale, detailed buildings. Makes me think of Sinatra..."ridin' high in April, shot down in May..."

very sad.gladly as was reported, their were no injuries.have been buying woodland scenics products ever since i can remember.

cant wait till they re-open.i wish them well.

terry..........

quote:

cant wait till they re-open

i hope they CAN reopen. (sufficient insurance coverage, records backup, manufacturing designs, etc.)

Terrible - terrible for every person who worked there and had ownership. I feel very badly for them. And for our little hobby-corner of the world, this is a big loss. I hope they can recover.
Frank

That's terrible. Glad everyone got out OK and that it didn't spread into the neighborhood given the materials inside.

Wonder if that was their inventory supply but not the manufacturing building? If supply then you could rent space and reload supplies. But if manufacturing then O boy, big time troubles.

Such a big loss for the owners, employees, and community. Glad to hear everyone is safe and there was no loss of life. Kudos to the fire department on dealing with water supply issues and also protecting exposures.


George Flanagan

Glad nobody was hurt. This is sad. They have some great product. As many posted above, they have been a hobby fixture for many years. Hopefully they will soon be able to resume operations.

Bill

A big loss to our hobby and all the jobs associated with the company.

I noted this from the link

quote:

...is a lot of foam and very combustable products

You have to wonder how safe your basement is with all of that foam and whatnot covering the layout (which in itself is just kindling).

Oh that is not good. What a shame. Hope they rebuild & get everyone back to work chop chop.

Jack

Hope they have up to date ins coverage and a desire to rebuild bigger and better.

The fire is bad news but buildings can be rebuilt. That every employee was safe is the good news. A train dealer told me at last falls York event that much of the Woodland Scenics product line is imported from China and repackaged. If this is the case Woodland Scenics should be able to rebuild quickly and be back in business in a few months. Meanwhile dealers shelves should still have a good supply of Woodland Scenics stuff on hand, Jim at Scenic Express has many products in stock that can fill the temporary void, and eBay is full of offerings for model trees, and other model RR scenic supplies.

Amazing Dennis, simply amazing...


From the news story:

quote:

Woodland Scenics is considered a leader in manufacturing model railroad scenery and other hobby supplies. When fire broke out in its Linn Creek manufacturing site and store, it spread quickly.

I hope that they can get back up and running. This happened to someone I know. 20,000 square feet of warehouse - total loss. It enabled thm to buy a building and get new equipment and get right back to work.

If they are able to rebuild it may give them the ability to do things that would have been too costly to change while the business was operating before the fire.

Thing positive for Woodland Scenics!

Cover all of the Foam with hydrocal to reduce fire risk.

Andrew

quote:

Originally posted by TMack:
If they are able to rebuild it may give them the ability to do things that would have been too costly to change while the business was operating

Yeah, like a sprinkler system! It may have seemed like an extravagance and unnecessary expense, but one fire, even a small one, it's worth it's weight in gold!

quote:

Originally posted by TonyC:

Yeah, like a sprinkler system! It may have seemed like an extravagance and unnecessary expense, but one fire, even a small one, it's worth it's weight in gold!

Tony, It's pretty rare in the US to find industrial zoned buildings at 60,000 sq ft without sprinklers. Fire Sprinklers in a building like that with the inventory and materials they had - is like pissing on a forest fire. The FD was probably in the mode of protecting the buildings around it, that thing was gone before they could save it.

The 20,000 ft building I mentioned that went up last year had the same issue. The fire got going and the building was a total loss.

Link to somewhat later news reports:
http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-st...10511,0,444951.story

...and another:
http://www.connectmidmissouri....=704154#.Twa_WYGwURw

quote:

Originally posted by VidKidz:
I noted this from the link

quote:

...is a lot of foam and very combustable products

You have to wonder how safe your basement is with all of that foam and whatnot covering the layout (which in itself is just kindling).

Woodland would have had a considerably larger quantity of material stored in bulk than the average model railroader.

rusty

I'm sorry to read about this terrible loss of property. But I'm very relieved that no one was hurt.

Woodland Scenics is an important part of this hobby and I wish them a speedy return to business.

Foam doesn't self-ignite, there needs to be an ignition source. So if you have a concern about the safety of your home, be sure there are no ignition sources such as:
> faulty or overloaded electrical circuits / devices;
> combustibles near HVAC equipment.

There should be smoke & CO2 detectors as well as a Class A-B-C fire extinguisher where you can get to it in the event of a fire in the train room.

Some of you folks on the East Coast may not truly appreciate that Linn Creek, MO, is a very small collection of buildings between the Lake of the Ozarks and Camdenton, MO. The water supply is from a rural water district which means essentially that there is no water supply for fire fighting. And no pressure for sprinklers. One of the articles mentions that the water supply was quickly exhausted. Which makes fighting a large fire that much more difficult.

This is an example of how a company can locate is a very rural area where the land is cheap, taxes low, etc, but basic services are not the same as in an urban area. You can save on one hand, but can pay the penalty on the other.

I hope that they can quickly recover. Our hobby needs them back.

I will, I like to give them an order for new structures they made. I wish them a good and fast recovery.
John Pignatelli

Look at Linn Creek in a satelite view such as through Google maps. My apartment complex is nearly as big as that town. It's tiny. It looks like a nice little place tucked away in a valley.

As others have stated, I'm glad everyone was okay. I wish them the best in getting back on their feet.

Sad news indeed.

Several years ago I saw a house burn down and about all the firemen could do was to hose down the adjacent buildings/houses so they wouldn't flame up also.

We all live in matchboxes and between the paper, chemicals, and wood we all seem to have stored in our homes anyone who survives a fire is lucky.

The Navy used to have Halon Fire Suppression Systems installed in some of their buildings, but I think they stopped using it when they discovered it sucked all the oxygen out as well as putting the fire out. Not good for anyone inside an enclosed space.

Here's hoping Woodland Scenics can get back up and running soon.

My thoughts and prayers go to those affected. I hope they are able to recover.