03/31/2023
Motion Marine had a hard day on March 30, 2016. A devastating 2-alarm fire not only destroyed our boat manufacturing facility, but we lost our historic family barn, our family history and our owner Mark Oldenstadt lost almost all of his personal possessions & his future retirement.
The loss of the fire was of the magnitude one does not fully recover from. There is the loss of sentimental items, family heirlooms, photos & memories. There was the loss of a lifetime of accumulated things- tools, supplies, equipment, sporting goods, taxidermy. There was the loss of employees belongings & customer's boats. There was the loss of over 20 years of building a facility that crafted one of the leading boats on the market, in a building that started as machine storage on a family farm. On paper the loss was over $3million and insurance did not cover any of it.
After over 30 years in the business, Motion Marine stopped building boats overnight. And what followed for the next four years was a version of hell we wouldn't wish on anyone. Advised to stay quiet by our lawyer we weren't able to share publicly the horrors of the insurance loss claim process, the unmeetable demands of receipts and proof of items lost, the impossible deadline to provide such proof or the devastating news that the insurance we had would not cover any of the loss.
Post-fire life was a blur of cleaning up the wreckage, sifting through charred ash to salvage anything that we could "prove" was lost. Counting de-tempered wrenches, sockets & half melted tools. Tearing down the waterlogged wreckage of what shell remained of the building. Taking down the 100 year old tree that burned as it was to close to the building. Surprisingly our boat customer's build files survived, one of the only things that did, but they were blackened, charred and soaked from the attempts to control the fire.
All of our other business records & computer servers were lost. Our accounting had to be forensically re-created from bank statements and vendor records to try and file 2015 taxes and continue business for the remainder of the year.
We put our heads down and persevered, quickly getting to work to transform a storage building into a new shop facility to keep our crew employed. Owner Mark used his personal savings to rebuild what would become Motion Marine Repair & Fabrication. And we are still in business (we get asked this question all the time).
By June of 2016 we had completed the detailed fire loss claim requirements, which took the next 4 years in court, multiple lawyers, and countless hours of repeating "we can't provide that receipt because it BURNED in the fire" to try and settle (the settlement barely covering the lawyer fees). Thankfully we had lots of photos of our facility from all the years of adding to it that survived to provide as "evidence" but even with the evidence when you are paying for an insurance policy that ends up not being proper coverage, you're screwed. In early 2020 we were finally settled and done with the endless depositions and court dates, but we all know what challenges came to small businesses the remainder of that year.
Below are links to the original news coverage from that fated night/ early morning. There are lots of errors in the reporting (reporters doing the best they could with little to no information) and a focus on there not being fire hydrants... Just to clarify, rural communities, such as where we are located, do not have fire hydrants- our water source is from a well. We never had any follow up to this story, and because we had to remain quiet about the details many people assumed we went out of business. Just to reiterate, we didn't!
Seven years later we are still here, in addition to the boat repair & fabrication work we also have ProMotion Fishing Products where we fabricate fishing & boating accessories. We are the leading bottom repair & custom aluminum fabrication business in the state. While we no longer currently build boats, the Motion Marine legacy is strong with our loyal customers & Motion Marine Boats enthusiast. (side note, Motion Marine Boats is for sale, give us a call to find out more if you'd like to get into the boat building business).
While we've managed to move forward from this loss as best we can, we still find daily reminders of melted aluminum bits, glass and shrapnel from the fire. We still have buckets of rusty tools and the charred remnants of our "fire-proof" safe we don't know quite what to do with.
There was a small go-fund me for Mark right after the fire, we wanted to express the gratitude for those who contributed to that early on.
As well as a thank you to The firefighters, our employees, family and everyone who helped with the fire clean up, sifting and sorting, the rebuilding and navigating the lawsuit.
This is not a memory we look forward to each year, but thankfully it's now a distant memory and no longer our active reality as it was for many years. Out of the ashes...
KATU News
KGW-TV
The Oregonian
Lake Oswego Review
Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue
KATU news report- interview with family friend Cindy
https://katu.com/amp/news/local/family-business-a-total-loss-after-early-morning-fire
corrections:
*business name Motion Marine (called Marine Motion on air)
*Did NOT have business insurance
The Oregonian/ Oregon Live photos
https://www.oregonlive.com/west-linn/2016/03/boat_facility_fire_forces_2-al.html
The Oregonian - TVFR Public Information Officer report Cassandra Ulven
https://youtu.be/Y5Dcxahtlbw
KGW - footage of fire & escavator only
https://www.kgw.com/video/news/fire-at-motion-marine/283-2113084
TVFR news release
https://www.tvfr.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=326
TVFR twitter video only
https://twitter.com/TVFR/status/715147966219071488/mediaViewer?currentTweet=715147966219071488¤tTweetUser=TVFR
Lake Oswego Review article
https://www.lakeoswegoreview.com/news/fire-engulfs-boat-plant-near-west-linn/article_e85dd16c-8bc3-5099-8f39-ddb324887751.html
