It began and ended with a fire – a look at the beginning and end of production in Naklo

It happened that his father, Lojze, called to him across the garden, and Ivo walked over to him, and the two disappeared around the corner. Of course, he lost track of time. In the meantime, the foam rose over the edge of the pot and caught fire on the burner. The wooden spoon and the contents of the pot also ignited. I was cooking lunch when my nephew arrived and shouted that there was a fire. We rushed to the garage. I grabbed an old sheet (thank God it was there!), soaked it with water, and threw it over the flames. In the meantime, I also turned off the gas. Instinctively, I rolled up my sleeves. The steam brushed against me, and both my arms turned red up to the elbows. I applied spruce resin ointment. By the time we finished lunch, there were no signs of burns left. That’s when we discovered that spruce resin ointment also helps with burns!

It began with a fire. And it ended with a fire on May 19, 2015. Matic had already taken over the business years earlier, while Ivo continued to make as many spruce resin ointments in his workshop as we sold from home.

But that day, a large flame engulfed the interior of the building with the workshop. The fire burst through the door and window. Ivo managed to escape in time and was already calling the firefighters when I rushed outside. I thanked divine providence that we had pruned the birch and cut down the larch that autumn.

With our grandchildren, we watched through the window as the firefighters arrived within minutes. We just kept thinking, “Let the gas cylinder not explode.” They managed to get the fire under control and pulled the cylinder out into the yard.

Everything in the workshop burned down. We later restored the building, and it now serves a different purpose, while since then, production has taken place exclusively in Ljubljana, in Matic’s modern, well-equipped laboratory.