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The fire in the Wyoming Industrial Park Saturday, March 10 was reported about 11:30 a.m. and 10 fire departments were summoned by dispatch to the site. The fire cause was reported to be an electrical service line damaged by snow falling from the rooftop of the Sunrise Mattress Factory and furniture manufacturer located between Fallbrook Ave. and I-35 on the east side of the freeway.

The owner of the mattress factory could not be reached. The fire spread to pontoon boat manufacturer Premier Marine, where the upholstery assembly area received damage, according to owner Michael Menne.

Premier Marine is still operating and its 200-plus employees were back at work Monday, March 12, according to Menne. "We really dodged a bullet," he mentioned. "It could have been a disaster."

A new assembly area was established immediately and suppliers Premier Plastics and Bel Corp were working to replace any damaged inventory and shipping new parts to Premier in 24 hours. Menne said, "We are expecting furntiture assembly to be set back a few days but (we'll) work hard to be running at full capacity by the end of this week.

"We are truly grateful to all the firefighters who did such a wonderful job of saving our building and many jobs," Menne concluded.

Premier Marine builds and markets 10 models of luxury pontoons and holds patents on manufacturing elements such as furniture hinges and a J clip rail fastener. It is a family-owned business established 16 years ago. See www.pontoons.com for additional company information.

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