The sole manufacturing plant run by Pac-Nor in Oregon, a popular precision rifle barrel manufacturer, burned down on October 23, 2019. The plant and equipment is a total loss (6 pictures in article at the link above). They made excellent barrels (I own at least one of their after market precision barrels). Although they were fully insured, since the owner is 66, he may not rebuild as of right now.
“We had a part wore out on a lathe and were waiting for a replacement part,” he said. “As one of the guys moved the electrical conduit attached to the lathe that comes out of a box in the wall, some sparks flew.”
Dichter said other employees pulled the main breaker to cut the power off and shortly after that, fire burst from the wall.
“I’d never seen anything go like that,” Dichter said. “It blew up with smoke and fire. It sounded like a tree fell on the plant.”
Employees witnessing the incident immediately grabbed fire extinguishers and attempted to put the flames out. Seeing that they could not stop the fire, they all quickly exited the building.
“There were eight or nine of us that got out,” Dichter said. “Just like we had trained. Everybody had an assembly point and got out safe. No body got hurt and I congratulated them on that.”
Dichter estimated that the building and machinery is valued at between $4 to $6 million.
“I am 66 years-old and I don’t know if I have the time left,” he said. “It took my lifetime to find all the machinery in this plant.”
Dichter opened the plant in 1985. The facility is insured, he said.
The plant supplies customers all over the world.
Whether he will rebuild is still unclear.