By Tim Sullivan
 
Seven weeks after its lubricant blending plant was destroyed by fire, Third Coast Packaging has resumed operations and is developing plans to rebuild its Friendswood, Texas, facility.
 
“Hopefully we’ll come back bigger and better,” plant manager Oscar Botello told Lube Report last week. “Details are still being worked out, but this is not going to put this company out of business.”
 
The May 1 fire destroyed 74 tanks and a 150,000-square-foot warehouse, leaving behind just 19 tanks and a maintenance building. Third Coast has brought in equipment needed to resume basic blending operations and leased another facility where it is packaging drums, pails and quart-sized containers of automotive and industrial lubes.
 
Of the 100 people employed before the fire, approximately 20 are now working. The company hopes to rehire all who were laid off once the plant is rebuilt but a schedule has not yet been set. The company must also develop an environmental remediation plan.
 
Botello said investigators have determined that the fire was started by an electrical problem but have not pinpointed the exact cause.