| From: fulch
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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wow a 5 alarm fire at martin archery in walla walla Washington now at 11 pm wednesday
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| From: Frisky
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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Looks like it's burning down.
http://www.nbcrightnow.com/story/29507167/breaking-large-fire-at-martin-archery-in-walla-walla
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| From: Frisky
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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Here's a pic from their firefighter's site. It started in the machine shop.
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| From: Frisky
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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Not sure now how bad it is, as it has extended onto grass and is said to be a huge wildfire.
Joe
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| From: Frisky
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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Just read that it is under control.
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| From: Frisky
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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Anyone have more info on Martin? It looks like the main building escaped damage.
Joe
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| From: Fisher Cat
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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Well, I'm biased, but IMO, the machine shop IS the main building. That's where all the money is invested anyway. I used to work in a shop that CNC machined phenolic and it wasn't that unusual to have a small fire in a machine. I hope they had insurance and get through this OK. If they do, they should re- examine their end of day procedures to ensure it doesn't happen again. - John
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| From: coxral
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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Latest I heard was they focused on saving the Traditional part mainly. There were a lot of Firefighters on site trying to save as much history and non-replaceable items. Any fire is a tragedy, but this one is part of our states history.
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| From: JLBSparks
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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I saw on the Bowsite side that the three employees working at the time were uninjured.
-Joe
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| From: larryhatfield
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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11 a.m. update: Fire crews from around the Walla Walla Valley converged Wednesday night on a dangerous, magnesium-fed fire in the machine shop of Martin Archery that ultimately destroyed the concrete-block building.
#Three employees who were working in the shop at the time escaped, and no injuries were reported, said Rocky Eastman, Walla Walla County Fire District No. 4 chief.
#The district was the lead agency on the fire and was dispatched at 9:21 p.m. to the world renowned bow-making business west of Walla Walla at 3134 Heritage Road. The cause of the fire remained under investigation this morning. A dollar value estimate of damages was unavailable this morning.
#The manufacturer had been making a comeback after nearly going out of business a few years ago.
#“The first units on scene saw heavy fire coming out of the roof,” Eastman said.
#The 17,000-square-foot machine shop, located behind a larger building used for product storage and offices, is where Martin Archery manufactures bows.
#One of the metals used to make the bows is magnesium, and there were two areas in the shop that contained the metal.
#“Magnesium is water reactive — when water hits it, it explodes,” Eastman said. “It was better to let that burn off than try to extinguish it.”
#Eastman said that with the machine shop heavily involved in flames, the primary objective became to protect the adjacent 40,000-square-foot office and storage building.
#Fire crews protected that building from damage. A nearby residence, about 30 feet east of the machine shop, sustained about $10,000 worth of damage.
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| From: Iktomi
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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Damn. I sure hope they can recover from this.
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| From: Frisky
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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WOW! That's interesting that the bow building area is less than half the size of the offices and storage.
Joe
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| From: 2nocks
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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hope the forms survived.
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| From: larryhatfield
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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joe, that building contained the compound bow assembly room, not the trad production room. it's in the large building. they lost all the compound production machinery, paint room, compound limb presses, film dipping tank, cnc water jet limb cutting machine, etc., including their store of aluminum and mag stock. martins never used magnesium that i know of. too volatile. it's cheaper, but needs it's stand alone facility for machining and grinding. the new owners opted to include it in an aluminum milling environment. thats their call and problem.
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| From: Osr144
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| Date: 09-Jul-15 |
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Most important thing is no one is hurt .Insurance should possibably cover most of the damage .The new owners may also call it quits.I seriously hope not but only time will tell.Magnesium I presumed was used to make compound risers.High tech is not always best but if you didn't make compounds your business would have gone broke long ago.Simplicity of trad equipment is good but modern day society just can't live with out all our high tech gadgets and gizmos.Collectively modern man kind is guilty with needing the latest and most high tech gear as indeed I am too.Technology is allowing me to post this off my cell phone.Bring back the old times ,a much simpler time but we have always had fires and I suppose we always will.Hope they make a good come back . OSR
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| From: Frisky
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| Date: 10-Jul-15 |
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Thanks Larry. I figured it was the compound facility with talk of magnesium. Bear managed to make thousands upon thousands of magnesium risers without burning their place down.
Joe
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| From: Tracker
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| Date: 10-Jul-15 |
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I was gonna swing by last week and see if I could take a tour, guess it'll be a shorter tour now... They were putting magnesium in their Jaguar elite take down. Made it lighter. Hope they recover! Really like that company.
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| From: 2nocks
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| Date: 10-Jul-15 |
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thanks Larry.
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| From: ceme24
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| Date: 10-Jul-15 |
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I can only imagine the wheelie MFG was their focal point...almost had to be in today's market...and to lose it all in a fire in early July - right before season....gonna hurt, even with insurance...
Maybe they can use this to change into something they never dreamed of. The founder of Legos was making an early version of Legos but his primary focus was wood toys...until his wood toy factory burned down. He lost the primary source of his income. At that point he decided to NOT return to what was his main income and he focused on the funny little plastic things that are now everywhere....
Here's to hoping Martin can recover and be better than they've been in years!
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| From: DJ
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| Date: 10-Jul-15 |
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Not to be distasteful, but I cannot resist the thought of natural selection. (little chuckle) The traditional bows live on! I do hope as a fellow Washingtonian Martin Archery recovers and is better than ever! DJ
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