Southern Michigan Rubber reflects on fire that shut down operations

THREE RIVERS, Mich.—Southern Michigan Rubber Inc. lived a manufacturer's worst nightmare.

In 2013, the firm's operation in Three Rivers caught fire, leaving the business out of commission and surrounded in uncertainty. President Marel Riley-Ryman knew there was only one path forward.

Rebuild, and rebuild they did.

"I never stopped for a minute to think let's not do this," Riley-Ryman said. "We had 27 people that would have been without jobs. Most of our people live within five miles, some don't have drivers' licenses, some ride bicycles."

The fire started at 1:30 p.m. and with the site being far away from the nearest fire department, it took a while for them to reach the scene. Riley-Ryman said, however, that the Southern Michigan team was able to go into the building's office—which was separated by a firewall—and save invaluable documents, computers and other information.

Eventually, there were 10 fire departments with 10 tankers and three swimming pools set up to fight the fire. At one point, they were pumping so much water out of one nearby lake that they had to stop. Riley-Ryman said the crew was still full pumping at 6:30 that evening and still fighting it at 11:30 that night.

"Everyone was watching it and you're totally helpless," Riley-Ryman said. "The smoke was so black you could see it all the way to Elkhart (Ind., 30 miles southwest of Three Rivers). It was the blackest, blackest smoke you'd ever see.

"Every time you turned around there was fire shooting out of another hole. You're standing there and watching it and asking what you can do."

The aftermath

Riley-Ryman handed every employee a notebook and told them to write down everything they could remember about their area, the process and tools used. She said those logs came in handy when it was time to deal with the insurance company.

Even though 70 percent of the building remained, they had to take everything away, even the concrete, and start from dirt. It had to stay that way for 10 days so soil tests could be conducted, and then the company could began rebuilding.

"It turned out to be a really good thing that we had to do it," Riley-Ryman said. "It just took more time. We had to pour the concrete and wait for it to set before we could bring back machines."

The one thing Southern Michigan Rubber could not afford to do was let its employees go. Riley-Ryman said the firm went out of its way to find work for them during the rebuild.

"We did whatever we could to keep our people here because when we came back up we needed experienced people," Riley-Ryman said.

Continuing production was another challenge. She said the firm couldn't afford to wait nine months for the building to be operational again. They had to keep their customers lined up so they'd be there once Southern Michigan Rubber was back.

The company found another firm to extrude and cook their rubber, then ship it to Southern Michigan's mold shop, which could use its grinders to get the finished parts to its customers. Because Southern Michigan had loss of income and operating insurance, it was covered.

There was one catch: Because the firm had not updated its financials, it lost $4,000 on every $10,000.

"You have to stay up to date on where your financials are," Riley-Ryman said.

Lessons learned

The Southern Michigan Rubber team discussed the lessons they learned from the fire at a recently held plant tour through the Association for Rubber Products Manufacturers.

Riley-Ryman said the site was operational within eight months, and through that time the company learned some valuable lessons.

Southern Michigan installed a cloud-based system that backs up its information daily. It also installed a carbon dioxide fire suppression system and a new pump system that can handle its water needs and inject water into the ductwork to suppress future fires.

It also has more consistent communication with its insurance company.

"Stay in communication with your insurance people," Riley-Ryman said. "They really need to be your best friends. "You've got to think about what you're going to do when everything is back together. If you were paying $15,000, are you going to handle that $75,000 to $80,000? If you decide not to rebuild, you're going to lose 50 percent of your insurance money, typically."

The company also ran into a minor hiccup when it went to re-install its equipment, learning that it had to get re-permitted to do so. Riley-Ryman said the issue was resolved without a fine, but she took the opportunity to plan ahead and secured permits for more machines than she needed at the time anticipating future growth.

She said those permits do not expire, but need to be updated if a major modification is made.

Most of all, Southern Michigan Rubber continues to make sure it has strong contacts within the rubber industry so it can have the support necessary to get through should another disaster occur.

"You network with the people who do the exact same thing you do," Riley-Ryman said. "We respect each other, we don't steal from each other. There's enough work out there for everyone. We each have our own little niches."