bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com
PARKERSBURG The owners of companies involved in the 2017 IEI Plastics fire are at the top of a list of companies that have not kept up with payments of the Wood County Fire Fee.
On Thursday, the Wood County Commission released a list of the Top 10 Highest Unpaid Fire Fees from 2016 to 2020.
The county passed the fee to help local volunteer fire departments with funding for new equipment, pay bills and other related expenses.
In the top two spots were Surnaik Holdings of WV LLC and Evergreen Holdings LLC with $23,742.90 and $9,356.04 owed respectively from each.
Both companies, with a shared address in Maryland, are owned by the Naik family who owned the former Ames plant in Parkersburg, called IEI (Intercontinental Export Import), where a large scale fire occurred in late 2017 which burned for a week and required the efforts of almost 40 area fire departments to put out. At the time, the facility was used to store various materials, including plasti