In his interview for Dnevne Novine daily, the owner of Mesopromet, Hilmija Franca, reflected on the night when his Bijelo Polje-based factory for meat production and processing caught fire. He said that night he was working with his colleagues until 3am and they were making big plans for the next week/month. Shortly after arriving home, his son called him and said: “something’s burning in our factory.”
The whole thing significantly harmed Montenegrin economy but Mr. Franca said he knew the fire’d burn the factory premises as soon as he’d realized where the hotspot was.
“We have been trying to recover from this misfortune, and I’m so happy to say that no one got hurt in fire- neither staff nor members of our family. Now we’re cleaning the area as we have huge quantities of meat to remove to landfills and we’re supposed to finish the job by the end of this week. After that we will remove parts of the factory- sheet metal and concrete structures – and start projecting and construction of a brand new one,” Mr. Franca told Dnevne Novine daily.
He stressed that there were no employees in the factory when the fire engulfed the building. Flames took almost 2 hours to extinguish. “There were just a few of us at the beginning. My son and firefighters were on the roof trying to put out fire but as soon as they realized nothing could be done, they gave up. Two days after the incident, I passed by the remains of the factory and didn’t even notice it wasn’t there anymore. But when I started talks with the workers, I realized fire destroyed my entire life’s work.”
“Our factory was massive and occupied some 10,000 sqm. We never knew about any irregularity in equipment. We have all licenses and fire extinguishers, and there was no even the slightest indication of malfunction,” said Mr. Franca.
He said it is not yet known what caused the fire, adding that they’re going to build the new and greater factory: “We don’t want to spend more than we can earn. We’ll borrow the amount of money we can pay back later and I reckon we are to lay foundations for a new factory in 3-4 months. Our regional and European partners are willing to assist. Our fellow MNE colleagues have already been of use to us a lot. I’d hereby like to thank them for their invaluable assistance,” noted Mr. Franca.
Mr. Franca strongly encouraged his workers by reiterating that there will be no dismissals in his company and they will get this month’s salaries on time.
