Firefighters Battling Huge Blaze at American Furniture Plant in Ecru

Editor’s note: This story is being updated by HottyToddy.com associate editor Randall Haley, who’s reporting on the spot, as new information comes in.
Firefighters from multiple cities and counties have managed to contain a massive blaze at American Furniture, a manufacturing plant in Ecru. They’re now working to keep the fire from spreading to other areas of the facility.
No injuries have been reported at this time.
Robby Watson of American Furniture said he reported the fire to the Pontotoc County Fire Department at 7:18 a.m. He said the fire may have started with a fuse box, but that’s not certain yet.
Fire departments from nearby Sherman, Thaxton and Calhoun City, as well as Union, Lee, Chickasaw and Calhoun counties, have also joined the fray, with about 50 trucks on the scene and 100 firefighters.

“We’re getting water from two water systems currently – the city of Pontotoc and also the city of Ecru’s water system,” said Pontotoc County Fire Coordinator Adam Patton. “The trucks we are using – we are using tankers. Some of them are 1,500 gallons of water, and some of them are up to 5,000 gallons of water.”
“Right now we are trying to keep the fire from getting to the offices,” Patton added. “We have contained the fire. We’ve cut the fire off from the east end. Our main challenge is to keep everybody safe [and] save what we can in the safest manner.”
The losses for American Furniture could be significant since the company has been exhibiting at the Tupelo Furniture Market this week. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports that the company had 50,000 pieces of furniture stored at the Ecru facility for the event.
“They saved Warehouse D,” Watson told HottyToddy.com, but he estimated the company could lose between 1/2 and 3/4 of the plant, including most of the warehouses, as of now.
According to the Daily Journal, this is the third fire at the plant since 2001.
Patton told HottyToddy.com he helped combat another fire at the plant in 2008. “At the time, we were not able to contain that fire. Experience taught us this time to jump on it better, strategy-wise, and we got in front of it.”
This story will be updated if/when more information becomes available.

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Randall Haley is HottyToddy.com’s associate editor. Email her at randall.haley@hottytoddy.com.