A Michigan injection molder whose plant recently suffered major damage in a fire has announced permanent layoffs.
TriStar Molding Inc., a custom injection molder in Marcellus, Mich., was affected by an overnight fire Feb. 25 and 26.
According to a document filed by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, the company will permanently lay off 32 of its 85 employees starting March 29.
"We suffered a major catastrophic fire on Feb. 25," the state report said. "It burned all of our facility but our newest addition that had a fire door."
The reason given for the layoff was "financial trouble."
The company had originally posted on Facebook that it planned to keep paying employees while it took time it to figure out the next steps.
Company officials were unavailable for comment.
Firefighters were called around 11 p.m. on Feb. 25.
According to Fire Chief Rob Olsen, the fire took more than 700,000 gallons of water to put out. Fire officials said the fire started when an employee turned on a machine to warm up and walked away.
When the employee returned, the machine was on fire and workers were unable to contain the fire with an extinguisher.
Olsen said a fire door helped prevent the fire from spreading to the plant's new wing.
The company posted on social media that no one was hurt in the fire and firefighters were able to save a new portion of the building, but an older area was a total loss.
According to the company website, TriStar is a family-owned molder with presses ranging from 25-610 tons of clamping force. Key end markets include office furniture, residential furniture, commercial trucks and construction.