Washington Furniture Employees To Get Paychecks And Be Back At Work Soon After Massive Fire

PONTOTOC, MISS. (WCBI) – Employees at Washington Furniture in Pontotoc will not miss paychecks, in the wake of a massive fire that ripped through the plant.

As smoldering debris was being sorted and cleared, Washington Furniture executives were making sure employees knew they would not miss a paycheck. That’s because plans are to open production lines in another building on site.

“Our goal is October 19th,  I know we have a lot going on between now and then, but the way the contractors and the community has stepped up  we feel like we can execute October 19th as out back up and running date,” said John Beard, Vice President of Sales for Washington Furniture.

Six production lines are scheduled to go in a building not impacted by the fire. That will happen, as crews clean up from the massive blazee that leveled the main building and destroyed millions of dollars in inventory.

“We’re going to pull out of this and we’re all going to support each other and be successful, ” Beard said.

Long range plans call for Washington Furniture to rebuild on the site. Company officials say they have no plans to abandon the community that has stood with the furniture plant for decades.

“It’s been a total community effort, with the fire department, police department, they’ve supported us one hundred percent , with the community, our employees and everything we have going on we are going to rebuild and be stronger and better than ever,” Beard said.

Washington Furniture employs more than 400 people at its Pontotoc location.

Earlier this year, Washington Furniture was bought by “Behold Home” of Smithville.