Knauf Insulation issues statement on Shelbyville fire

(SHELBYVILLE, Ind., February 16, 2007)  Knauf Insulation was struck early this morning by a fire at one of its Shelbyville, Indiana manufacturing facilities. 

The fire was confined primarily to office space in Knauf’s Plant I, which produces commercial and industrial products as well as some light density insulation.  The impact of the blaze on production facilities was minimal, with all manufacturing lines basically undamaged.  Customer orders are being fulfilled from existing inventories and manufacturing is likely to resume within the next week, meaning very little impact on product deliveries. 

Knauf President Robert Claxton made the following statement:

“First of all, we’re able to report that the fire has been fully extinguished, and that no Knauf employees were injured.

“We’re deeply grateful for the heroic efforts of the Shelbyville Fire Department, as well as fire departments from surrounding communities—they responded quickly and brought the fire under control.  We also want to thank the community as a whole for the outpouring of support we’ve received.

“I’m pleased to report that all manufacturing lines appear to be intact and undamaged.  We’ve had some issues with the utility infrastructure, so power has been limited; and we anticipate resuming production when the utilities are fully restored, perhaps as early as next week.

“Our goal is to limit the impact of this unfortunate incident on our customers.  Our warehouse wasn’t damaged, and we have ample inventories on hand to meet customer needs.  Now, we’re focusing our efforts on clean-up and restoring utilities so we can be running again as soon as possible.”

Knauf is in the midst of a $220 million modernization and expansion of its Plant I facility to increase capacity and improve product quality and consistency.  Fortunately, this new construction was also unaffected by the fire. 

Knauf Insulation is a leading global manufacturer of thermal and acoustical insulations for residential, commercial, industrial, OEM and metal building applications.  For more information about Knauf sales and products, visit http://www.knaufinsulation.com/, write to Knauf Insulation, One Knauf Drive, Shelbyville, IN  46176 or call 800-825-4434.

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