The owner of the Bijeljina company “Mega-drvo” Svetozar Ostojić said that the damage caused by this morning’s fire in the company’s facilities, according to the first estimates, is greater than 15 million BAM, that now the most important thing is to save the workers until production is restored.
Ostojić told Srna news agency that the entire furniture production, technical preparation, massive plate production and one dryer burned down in the fire, and that the estimated damage was 15 million BAM and more.
The remaining 20 dryers and the warehouse were not affected by the fire.
“The fire happened when I was most afraid, on the weekend, when there are not many people, around 6:00 a.m. in one plant and then it spread to the second, third and fourth,” Ostojić added.
He explained that it is about 15,000 to 20,000 square meters of the area of the buildings where the machines were located, the prices of which reach millions.
According to him, this company has the entire hydrant network, a system of about a hundred nozzles, but the problem was the night shift and the lack of personnel.
Ostojić thanked the firefighters from Bijeljina, Ugljevik, Lopar, Janja who came to extinguish the fire.
“But in situations like this in the wood industry, the first five to ten minutes are crucial, after that, when it catches, it’s like gunpowder, it’s the wood, everything is dry,” explained Ostojić.
Ostojić said that the fire has not yet been extinguished.
“We are still fighting to prevent it from spreading to the administration building. There is still carpentry left, a smaller part of the production that has not been affected,” he added.
He stated that the biggest issue is how to save 350 employees.
“We need a few months to clean and repair this. Now, due to the Ukrainian crisis, the equipment is waiting for six to 12 months. The flywheel we had for 30 years has now been cut off all of a sudden,” said Ostojić.
He stated that this means that all suppliers of this company will now divert their products to other parties and that the question is how they will return them in a few months.
“Our Western customers are now forced to find their way, and when they do, the question is how many will return,” Ostojić pointed out.
He stated that the most important thing is to provide the minimum wage to the workers, which is about 350,000 BAM per month, in the next six to eight months, or as long as it takes, in order to save them.
“If I disband them in today’s situation, it will be difficult to bring them back together, people must have bread, the basic necessities of life. We will try, we will see what we will do and how we will do it, we will make a plan. The most important thing is to preserve the people we have acquired for 20 or so years. Everyone is trained for these jobs. Nowadays, when there are no workers, I have to save this as best I know how,” Ostojić added.
