SPS Technologies was once an anchor in Abington, but the massive fire has prompted questions about its future

Christopher Paquette used to be able to tell the exact moment when shifts would change at the sprawling brick SPS Technologies factory at 301 Highland Ave. in Abington. At exactly 3 p.m. during the 1970s and 1980s, hundreds of people would file out of the aerospace manufacturer and into their cars, clogging Jenkintown Road and Kenmore Avenue.

Now, Paquette said, the afternoon hour passes without commotion.

“I’ve probably driven past that factory 5,000 times,” said Paquette, 65, who has lived near SPS his entire life. “It’s part of my personal landscape.”

The 105-year-old SPS Technologies factory loomed large over not just Abington but Jenkintown and Cheltenham from the day it opened in 1920 until mid-February, when a four-alarm fire overtook the facility for five days, triggering school closures, a voluntary evacuation order, and eventually, parts of SPS to be demolished until the fire was extinguished Saturday.

Officials initially issued a shelter-in-place order for residents within a mile radius of SPS over concerns that the flames had touched harsh chemicals the factory had used to produce specialized metal bolts and fasteners for clients such as Boeing, NASA, and the military.

No contaminants from the blaze have been found in the air or water supply, according to tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Fire officials say crews were able to keep the blaze away from the building that houses most of SPS’s chemicals.

» READ MORE: No contaminants found in the air or water supply as SPS Technologies fire burns for fourth straight day, officials say

The ordeal has renewed interest in what went on inside the SPS facility, which former employees told The Inquirer had become a shell of itself after two corporate acquisitions and several rounds of workforce reductions.

Now, the community and SPS sit at a crossroads as both grapple with the fire’s aftermath. And questions about how or whether the company should rebuild are complicated by long-standing concerns about how safely it stores the chemicals it uses.

Approximately 475 employees worked at the company’s Abington facility at the time of the fire, a spokesperson for SPS said via email.

Pay and benefits for those employees have been extended through at least March 16 and March 31, respectively, the spokesperson wrote, “while we assess the damage to our operation and continue to evaluate all our options, including temporary work sites.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s Rapid Response Team — which provides assistance to workers facing sudden job loss — is also in the “early stages” of coordinating support for impacted SPS employees, a department spokesperson said.

Emergency responders have been working to remove charred debris from nearby lawns and cars. A class-action lawsuit filed after the fire alleges that SPS failed to maintain the factory to industry standards, causing “hundreds if not thousands” of people and businesses to potentially have sustained damages.

» READ MORE: SPS Technologies fire in Abington is extinguished. Now, a class-action lawsuit seeks answers

Bob Heffner was part of the factory’s now-disbanded volunteer fire crew between 1985 and 1995, and said he used to put out “five to six” small fires a month in between machine-operating shifts. When he found out about the destructive blaze, his shock sparked memories of company softball games and massive company picnics at West Point Park.

SPS is a “tough place,” said Heffner, who retired in 2018 after 44 years with the company. “It’s dirty, it’s noisy. The working conditions weren’t great, but it was a good place for me to land.”

The SPS facility was a place that drew families in its heyday. Jobs trickled down from fathers to sons.

Founded in Philadelphia as Standard Pressed Steel in 1903 by Howard T. Hallowell, SPS moved to its Abington facility in 1920 and hit its stride during World War II, when the factory operated around the clock to produce bullet cores and aircraft parts.

SPS would keep growing until it was acquired by Oregon-based jet engine manufacturer Precision Castparts in 2003, which was then bought by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Corporation for a record $32.1 billion in 2016.

“It paid a good wage for factory work. You could be a high school graduate and buy a house ... have a family and take vacations,” said Ed Weinberger, 61, who worked at SPS as a machine operator from 1986 until 2018.

Weinberger worked at SPS because his dad operated a nut press on the factory floor for 27 years until he retired in 2000. Working together inside the facility made the duo closer, said Weinberger, who recalled sharing lunches with his father in the break room and getting to finally see his dad’s true sense of humor.

SPS is the sole supplier of certain parts for Black Hawk helicopters, F-15 fighter jets, and other military-grade aircrafts. The designation was once a great source of pride for factory workers.

» READ MORE: SPS Technologies, whose Pa. plant was partly destroyed by fire, is the sole source of some U.S. military parts

“We knew we were making stuff for our servicemen,” said Weinberg, who bragged about working on bolts for the military during Operation Desert Storm.

Doug Beaver, who worked on and off in sales for SPS throughout the 2010s, said the joy his father got from his job there was what drew him to the company after working in the entertainment industry.

Doug Beaver Sr. had worked in quality control, machinery, and receiving for SPS for 46 years and had just met with a financial planner to discuss retirement when the fire struck, his son said.

“He’s not taking it too well. It’s been his whole life’s work,” Beaver said of his father, who used to bring home signed photographs of astronauts on NASA spacecrafts. “It’s not just a job.”

The factory felt like a large family, both Weinberger and Heffner said. After work, employees would gather for golf tournaments, bowling nights, and two different company softball leagues. Heffner played third base on the Night Owls, the softball team for night-shift workers. They took home at least one championship.

“They had one of the best fast-pitch softball teams in the area,” said Michael Appel, 54, of Glenside, the section of Abington where the plant is located. Appel recalled trekking to the baseball diamonds at Hallowell Park as a teenager to watch the SPS employees play. When the playoffs hit, Appel said, the games would draw a decent crowd.

“That whole area [around SPS] — people were always down there for picnics or pick-up baseball games,” Appel said. “It had this rustic, romantic feel to it. It gave Glenside and Jenkintown a sense of identity.”

Memories like these spurred U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Pa.) — whose congressional district includes Montgomery County — to call on SPS to rebuild a “modern, clean, efficient” plant in the district, even as the long-term environmental toll from the fire remains unclear.

Dean, a Glenside native who has represented the area in both the state General Assembly and, since 2018, the House of Representatives, said generations of her husband Patrick Cunnane’s family worked for SPS at one point or another. They include her father-in-law, who stamped parts at the factory during World War II.

Dean said she did not yet have information on the dollar amount of contracts SPS Technologies receives from the federal government, but reiterated its critical capacity as a producer of fasteners. A member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, Dean told The Inquirer that she wants to understand the disaster and economic development resources available to potentially aid SPS during its next steps.

“This is a legacy manufacturer with tight community ties,” Dean said. “It’s one of a kind.”

Before any rebuilding, first would come monitoring of air, water, and soil for any contamination.

The Abington facility was permitted to handle carcinogens linked to increased risks for cancer. In 2023, SPS had disposed of 177 tons of chemicals, according to the most recent results from the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory. That same year, SPS had to pay the EPA $109,000 for storing chemicals without a permit.

» READ MORE: DEP tested air for six chemical compounds near SPS Technologies, and Philly tested for two dozen

The class-action lawsuit against SPS alleges that there were “numerous operational failures” present at the time of the fire. Abington’s director of fire and emergency services, Tom McAneney, said that the facility did not have a working sprinkler system at the time of the blaze but that SPS did take all safety precautions required under the law.

Heffner said that SPS standards had relaxed after it was acquired by Precision Castparts. The two-engine volunteer fire crew had been disbanded, he said, along with the morale-boosting company picnics and sports leagues. Jobs at the factory had also dwindled from 900 workers when Precision Castparts bought the firm to 471 at the time of the fire.

“It was like all of a sudden they decided they would get better work out of people by being mean to them,” Heffner said.

SPS did not respond to questions regarding workforce reductions or working conditions. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor has no record of official notices announcing layoffs from SPS Technologies.

For Appel, the fire reminds him of what happened in East Palestine, Ohio, in 2023 after a freight train crashed and released toxic vinyl chloride into the surrounding community during a botched containment plan.

» READ MORE: From 2024: Opinion | One year ago, a train derailment upended my town. I’ll spend the rest of my life worrying.

Appel doesn’t want to see the SPS site filled by something else, he said, but has concerns that jumping to rebuild the factory could obscure any future environmental impacts.

“I would watch this kind of thing happen in other places, where it seemed like they were doing everything right. But then years later, other stuff would come up where they were cutting corners,” Appel said. “I want to trust that they’re doing the right thing, but I’m going to be skeptical until I know for sure.”