One-year anniversary of large fire at Momper Insulation

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Business is getting back to normal at Momper Insulation.  Tuesday was the one-year anniversary of a large fire at the Main Street business.

Firefighters spent the entire day trying to get the fire under control.  Officials even stayed on the scene overnight to let the building burn in a controlled environment.  Investigators have never been able to determine what sparked the fire.

Over the past year, the company's president, Matt Momper, said getting a new building up to today's regulations and codes has been the most challenging task.  The destroyed building was built in 1973.

"We're right on the back side of the Junk Ditch and every five years the flood lines change, so we’re moving the building two feet, and raising one little section, and just making it code compliant," Momper said.

CLICK ON THE VIDEO TAB TO WATCH AN EXTENDED INTERVIEW WITH MATT MOMPER.

Construction has begun to replace the building.  If all goes well, it should be replaced by April 2013.

“We’re at the point of digging up foundations, and we have to re-do all of them," Momper said.  "The building that will be built on that site will not be the block building.  It’ll be a steel-framed building, so we’ll have to re-do the whole foundation system to support the columns."

Momper spoke with NewsChannel 15 the day of the fire.  He said his workers would be back at work the next day.

He was able to keep his word to his approximately 75 employees.

"There was no time for a pity party," he said.  "We have a lot of families who rely on us for their income."

Momper said he and his management team formed a plan that involved getting equipment from its locations throughout the Midwest.

Every employee worked, and all but three jobs were completed.  Those three jobs were done the next day when the proper supplies arrived in town.

"There was not one person ever sent home," Momper said.  "Today’s the anniversary of the fire.  Actually, our employees have probably gotten more overtime than they’ve ever gotten during this recession."

Momper added his employees worked seven days a week a few months after the fire to help get the business back on its feet.

In the fire, the company lost 45 trucks.  Of those, 15 were custom-made trucks.  So far, 14 of them have been replaced.

"We had great insurance," Momper said.  "But with limited insurance money to restock equipment and inventory, we asked, how will we replenish the fleet?  How will we replenish the inventory? How will we re-build a functional code-compliant building?  It's been a lot of hard work and thought process rolled into the last year.  There’s no time to sit there and think we lost everything.  It might have been our greatest hour, to show what we’re made of, what we had to deal with, and how we came through."