Flextec Escapes Fire's Wrath

Late June of this year was a scary time to have a business (or a home) near Colorado Springs, Colo. That's because a wildfire of epic proportions, known as the Waldo Canyon Fire, was thundering through the area, consuming whatever was in its path. Before it was under control, two people died and 346 homes were destroyed in the community of Mountain Shadows alone. Although the popular tourist attraction Garden of the Gods was spared, another popular destination, the Flying W Ranch, burned to the ground.

Rocky Rahija, owner, president, and CEO of Flextec Corp., counts his lucky blessings because both his home and his printing business were spared from the fire's wrath.

With its roots stemming back to 1980 in flexographic consulting, Flextec was founded in 1995 as a label printing company. The company provides primary and secondary labels, security holograms, blister packs, flexible packaging, and extended text labels. It operates from a 36,000 sq.-ft. facility bought in 2003, with four presses (flexo and digital) and four finishing operations. The company employs 23 people and primarily runs a one-shift operation. Rahija has more than 45 years in the printing industry.

The fire started about noon on Saturday June 23 on an area of about 100 to 150 acres not far from Rahija's home. His community was forced to evacuate shortly afterwards. He and his wife had barely enough time to grab their cat, dog, and jewelry before escaping from the area to take up residence with their daughter who lived a safe distance away.

With cooperating weather conditions, "fire crews were able to keep the fire at bay for a couple days," says Rahija. But on Tuesday afternoon, June 26—driven by winds from the west at 65 mph—flames crested the ridge near the Flextec facility and sped about half a mile down the side of the hill in under 30 minutes.

A mandatory evacuation was sounded at 4 pm at Flextec and with very little time to prepare, the production operation went down. Rahija finished loading a truck with a customer order until 5:30 before fleeing the area.

The operation was curtailed for three days. During that time, the closest Rahija was able was to get to the facility was two hundred yards, but this was at least enough to see that it was still standing. The evacuation was finally lifted at 9 pm on Friday, June 29. Production operations began the next morning, Saturday, and continued through the next week including the July 4th holiday—all in the interest of keeping customer commitments.

In the end, Rahija says they did not miss any customer orders; several coast-to-coast shipments were late, but he says the customers were very understanding. The fire ended up coming within about 1,500 yards of the facility and except for some soot and ash damage to imaging equipment, Flextec experienced no significant damage. The company's good fortune went further as none of its employees experienced significant losses.

In the aftermath

While his home was real close to where the fire started, Rahija says his community of more than 200 homes did not incur any extensive damage. The community has invested in annual fire mitigation work, which officials said contributed to its good fortune. This was in contrast to one of the housing developments in Mountain Shadows that lost 140 of 178 homes to the Waldo Canyon Fire.

On the business side, Rahija says he got a wake-up call to re-look at his disaster recovery plan, which hadn't been updated in at least eight years. "The primary focus has to be on customer support. Everyone in the supply chain will jump through hoops to get you back up; you can always replace equipment and supplies. The key is having arrangements to meet your customers' needs in the shorter term. Customers don't need a secondary supplier if you have a reliable back-up plan."

From this side of things, Rahija was amazed at the generosity offered by several "friendly competitors."

"I evacuated my home early Saturday afternoon and at 7 am on Sunday, I got a call from Greg Jackson of Columbine Label Company [Centennial, Colo.] offering help." And that was just a start, as he also was contacted by Randy Hargadine of LabelTec in Ft. Collins, Colo.; Ted Shanley of Emerald City Label in Everett, Wash.; and others, including colleagues at I-Graphics in Loveland, Colo.

"It's just tremendous camaraderie. It's so rewarding to know you've got friends that will help you out. I can't thank the people enough who stepped up and offered help. I'm just so grateful." pP