[8/15/03]The company whose Vicksburg rubber-recycling plant was the site of the city’s worst-ever industrial accident has filed for reorganization under federal bankruptcy laws.

Rouse Polymerics International Inc. filed Tuesday for Chapter 11 reorganization, a spokesman for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Jackson confirmed.

“I’m going to do my very best” to keep the business going, company president Michael Rouse said Thursday.

Chapter 11 is designed to give financially distressed businesses chances to reschedule debt payments and continue operating until they can regain financial viability.

An explosion and fire at the 60,000-square-foot rubber-recycling facility that was operating off U.S. 61 South on May 16, 2002, resulted in burns to 12 employees, five of whom died in the days and weeks that followed.

A federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration probe into the cause of the fire took six months, resulting in Rouse’s receipt of citations for 24 violations of workplace-safety regulations and a fine of $187,680. None of those violations, however, was found to have triggered the disastrous explosions.

The plant employed about 100 people when it was destroyed by the fire. Most were left without jobs.

Following OSHA’s release of the burned facility back to Rouse and the company’s cleanup, operations resumed on a small scale.

In a controlled process, workers and machines grind and dry rubber scraps, including those from old tires, producing a fine powder that is used in the manufacture of new tires and other products. The dust is flammable, and some of it that had become airborne was believed to have contributed to the explosion and flash fire.

Rouse faces civil lawsuits that have been filed on behalf of all five men who died from their injuries in the fire. The company has also been sued for damages by its neighboring company, with which Rouse’s former production facility shared a common wall.

Rouse said no timetable had been set for when the company planned to emerge from Chapter 11 protection from its creditors. He also said he did not know when such a timetable would be set.

He has declined to discuss details of the company’s operation. Following the fire Rouse’s employee count fell as low as about 12, and at last report it remained no more than one-quarter of its pre-fire level.