When the first Ebola case hit Firestone’s plantation March 30 in Harbel, Liberia, the company swung into action.

Ed Garcia, the managing director of Firestone Liberia, redirected his entire management structure toward Ebola.

Firestone’s Harbel hospital set up Ebola wards. Hundreds exposed to Ebola were quarantined in other plantation facilities, including the closed schools.

Seventy two cases were reported in Harbel, including people who came from neighboring towns.

The swift action worked. 

Today, the only Ebola cases remaining on the 185-square-mile plantation are in patients who came from those neighboring towns.

Harbel is a company town not far from the capital city of Monrovia. It was named in 1926 after the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, Harvey, and his wife, Idabelle.

To read the entire National Public Radio story on Firestone’s quick and effective response, click on http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/10/06/354054915/firestone-did-what-governments-have-not-stopped-ebola-in-its-tracks?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20141012&utm_campaign=mostemailed&utm_term=nprnews