Family-owned Niagara Lubricants has vowed to continue operations and keep its workers employed after a devastating fire.
Damage, estimated at between $2.5m and $8m, was caused by the fire at the company's headquarters and operations plant in Buffalo, New York. However, the company, which has been family owned since it was founded in 1923, told its employees that they still had jobs three days after the fire broke out.
Destruction to the three-storey building was almost total because of the amount of lubricants and greases stored in the building and fire crews could only contain the fire, which burned for nearly 24 hour, and stop it spreading to nearby buildings.
According to company owner, Leon Smith III, Niagara Lubricants had received support from local and state officials as well as local businesses to help get the company back into operation. As well as supplying lubricants and greases to its orginal market in Western New York, the company has grown over the years to export it products across North and South America as well as Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.