GE Appliance Park Fire Causes Production Delays
On April 3, a fire broke out at GE Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky. Firefighters are still on the scene dealing with hot spots, but the fire has mostly been contained. It caused heavy damage throughout the building and soot has traveled to nearby neighborhoods. GE is experiencing some production delays, but the company anticipates that they will be running smoothly again shortly.
A GE spokeswoman said that they are working hard to get the park operational again, but it will take some time. Most GE employees have taken a couple of days off because of the fire. Critical members were on the scene trying to get things cleaned up.
Despite the fire, GE hopes to keep production delays to a minimum. They are expediting parts and inventory to restart production. For instance, they are using an alternate parts store warehouse. Shipping to customers has also been resumed. The fire has definitely been a headache for GE, but they had risk mitigation plans in place to get production up and running again quickly.
Production delays are not the only problem that GE is dealing with right now. A resident who lives near Appliance Park filed a lawsuit on Monday. The lawsuit claims that GE was negligent in storing flammable material in its warehouse which put residents at risk from the “noxious plumes of black smoke and excessive amounts of particulate matter.” It is a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the entire community living around Appliance Park.
Kentucky’s Department of Environmental Protection said the air is safe and Louisville’s Health Department said the soot should not have any lasting effects. That doesn’t counter the fact that residents near Appliance Park were affected by the fire. Once GE gets their warehouse up and running again to full capacity, they will have the lawsuit to deal with.
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