Fifty years ago this month, the Broyhill furniture factory in Marion, NC, burned on January 14, 1976. Here are some notes about the incident. 

– Wednesday morning.
– January 14, 1976.
– 11:05 a.m.

– Otis L. Broyhill furniture plant on West Henderson Street. [AC, 1/15/76]
– Three-story building housed finishing room, where fire stated.
– Three- or five-acre site, primarily wooden buildings, some of which were built in 1904. [WSJ, 1/15/76]
– Manufactured “early American-style white pine bedroom furniture.”

– Plant was “fully protected” by automatic sprinklers. [WSJ, 1/16/76]
– Had 1,500 GPM fire pump. [WSJ, 1/16/76]
– Reservoir with 300,000 gallons of water. [WSJ, 1/16/76]

– Fire started in the finishing room. [AC, 1/15/76]
– Caused by a steam pipe “that was not ordinarily used” was turned on and became so hot that it ignited the “lacquer mist, or fog” in the room. [AC, 1/15/76]
– Flames then quickly spread to other buildings, including a warehouse where $3M to $4M of finished furniture was stored. [AC, 1/15/76]

– The Broyhill fire brigade initially fought the fire. [WSJ, 1/15/76]
– They had the fire under control with “company hoses.” [WSJ, 1/15/76]
– Then their water supply “ran dry” and “the fire got away from them.” [WSJ, 1/15/76]

– County manager statement: “The fast spreading of the fire in the finishing area, a very high wind which carried the fire into the assembly and machining area, and the short water supply in the city system made it impossible to control a fire of this intensity.” [AT, 1/15/76]

– “During the afternoon as the blaze raged out of control” “fire trucks jockeyed for good position to use hoses.” [AC, 1/15/76]
– At the same time, public service messages were broadcast on the radio advising residents not to use water except in the case of an emergency. [AC, 1/15/76]

– In the late afternoon, “city water was turned off,” when “reservoir levels dropped dangerously low.” [AC, 1/15/76]
– Water was shuttled from the “Cross Mill textile plant pond” and from the Clinchfield Manufacturing Company. [AC, 1/15/76]
– Initially, the plant’s 300,000 gallons of stored water were used, but the tank ran dry before the fire was extinguished. [AT, 1/15/76]

– “We had it under control then we ran out of water.” [AT, 1/15/76]
– The fire then spread to the “packing department.” [WSJ, 1/15/76]

– Said MFD at 6:45 p.m., fire was being contained, with no damage to “surrounding community” expected “unless we run out of water.”

– Some brick houses in the immediate area were also “hosed down” as “the heat from the mounting blaze crept higher.”
– Other firefighters kept a steady stream of water on “several large tanks of lacquer.” [AT, 1/15/76]
– There were also concerns that the fire could spread to the U.S. Champion’s Drexel Division plant, a larger furniture factory about 100 feet away. [WSJ, 1/15/76]

– And within 200 feet of the factory, the area “was hot enough to belie the 40-degree temperature of the late afternoon.” [AT, 1/15/76]

– There were 439 workers on site.
– No injuries to employees.
– Two firefighters “overcome by smoke” and treated on scene. [GDN, 1/15/76]

– Departments on scene were Marion, Glenwood, Nebo, Sugar Hill-Montford Cove, Woodlawn, Pleasant Garden, Asheford, Dysartsville, and Morganton.
– Asheville (35.6 road miles) and Lenoir (36.6 road miles) also cited as responded. [WSJ, 1/15/76]
– Asheville was requested in the afternoon.

– Some 20 pieces of fire apparatus, including several pumpers.
– Morganton’s aerial tower arrived about four hours into the incident (28 road miles) and was the first (and only?) aerial on scene. [WSJ, 1/15/76]

– Some company records were salvaged. [AT, 1/15/76]
– Workers also moved a large quantity of stacked lumber to safety. The plant housed some 7 million feet of lumber. [AT, 1/15/76]
– Service was distributed to 2,700 telephones, after the fire destroyed $10,000 of telephone equipment. [AT, 1/15/76]
– Electric power was also “deadened” in the community surrounding the plant. [AT, 1/15/76]

Photos

See more photos in this Google Drive folder.

Color photos above from a video slideshow shared by Kimberly Wright posted on August 22, 2021, to the You Know You’re From Marion, NC group on Facebook. 

Sources

Various newspaper accounts including:

Asheville Citizen, 1/15/76
Asheville Times, 1/15/76
Hickory Daily Record, 1/15/76
News and Record, 1/15/76
Winston-Salem Journal, 1/16/76