Fire at Play-Rite
By Robbie Rhodes
[ From an article in the Modesto (CA) Bee, Monday, Feb 3, 1997 ]
Blaze destroys Play-Rite Music
One of only two manufacturers of player piano rolls in the country was put out of business early Sunday when a two-alarm fire destroyed the company's Turlock warehouse. The blaze at the Play-Rite Music Rolls building destroyed more than 40,000 finished piano rolls as well as 12,000 master rolls used to produce others. A Turlock fireman said that the warehouse is 5,000 square feet; the owner estimated the cost of the structure at $140,000 and cost of the contents at $660,000, for an $800,000 total.
The first report of the fire at the company warehouse, 401 S. Broadway, came at 7:42 a.m. Firefighters were able to enter the office area and hauled out file cabinets, records and some personal items, and saved some costly machinery in a back room set apart from the rest of the warehouse. The rest was consumed. The warehouse was used to store, package and ship finished rolls. Virtually everything in the building -- paper rolls, cardboard tubes, corrugated boxes and an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of paper -- was extremely flammable.
Jeane Malone, 75, and her son, John Malone, run Play-Rite, which has been making the rolls for nearly a century. There is another Play-Rite building in Turlock where some of the production is done. But without the ability to package and ship its products, John Malone told fire officials, the company is "out of business completely."
Seven fire investigators descended on the blackened building Sunday to determine what caused the fire and concluded it was accidental, probably caused by one of the pieces of equipment in the shop.
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