- A fire broke out on the company premises of Swiss Krono AG in Menznau (LU) on Wednesday morning.
- The fire has been under control since afternoon.
- According to Michael Knüsel, member of the Swiss Krono management board, three quarters of production will be ramped up again in the afternoon.
- Nobody got hurt.
The fire broke out in a timber warehouse on the company premises of Swiss Krono AG. Around 240 emergency services are on site, said Vinzenz Graf, fire department inspector for the canton of Lucerne, in the morning to SRF. The situation calmed down in the afternoon.
The fire is under control, the administrative staff are working normally and those in production are on stand-by, says Knüsel. However, the plant will be ramped up again by up to three quarters in the afternoon.
Family business expects damage in the millions
Swiss Krono manufactures wood materials. According to the company, it employs 5,000 people at ten production sites worldwide and generates sales of over 2.0 billion Swiss francs.
480 people work at the Menznau location, the first of the family company. Michael Knüsel expects damage in the millions, as he explains to SRF. However, one is insured against this and employees of the insurance company were already on site today. Knüsel will carry out more detailed clarifications in the next few days when the damage can be better assessed.
No more recycling possible
According to Knüsel, it was the wood processing plant that caught fire. In a wood processing plant, wood is recycled so that it can be reused for new wooden panels. According to Knüsel, this is no longer possible. Processed waste wood can no longer be used in production. This accounted for 25 percent of the total amount of wood.
“We now have to produce with 100 percent fresh wood.” It is possible to produce with fresh wood, but this leads to higher prices because the raw material is expensive. But customers needn’t worry. “We can produce 100 percent volume.” There will be no delivery bottlenecks.
Scarce extinguishing water as a challenge
Firefighters needed a lot of water to put out the fire. Menznau’s water supply was reaching its limits, so that water had to be brought in from bodies of water and cisterns.
A challenge for the fire brigade is to provide enough extinguishing water. The fire-fighting water supply of the community is at the limit, said Graf. Water is therefore also taken from bodies of water. It was previously announced that a four-kilometer link would be installed for this purpose. There was also water transport.
Because of the fire, the Langenthal-Wolhusen railway between Willisau and Wolhusen was temporarily interrupted, as announced by the SBB.