Washington ? On the night of Dec. 11, 1995, an explosion and fire, whipped by winter winds, raged for five hours through three of the four buildings of the Malden Mills textile plant, dealing a devastating blow to the company, its employees and the shaky economy of the Lawrence, Mass., area, north of Boston.

It was not the first crisis endured by the third-generation mill owner, Aaron Feuerstein. In 1981, changing fashions wrecked the market for its main product, fake fur, and forced the company into bankruptcy. But Malden Mills recouped by developing a new best seller, Polartec, a very warm but lightweight fabric popular with skiers and other outdoor athletes.

The fire was an even greater challenge to a businessman already past 70. But, defying the example of the many other mill owners who had littered the New England landscape with abandoned plants as they moved work to the lower-wage economy of the South, Feuerstein announced he would put up a modern plant in the same location. He became even more of a folk hero to his workers, many of them first-generation immigrants, by handing out Christmas bonuses and then keeping them on the payroll for three more months while they waited for their jobs to return to makeshift quarters.

But now Malden Mills and its state-of-the-art factory face a new crisis — a pending decision by the three-member board of the federal Export-Import Bank that is crucial to its escaping from the post-fire bankruptcy. At stake are 1,200 good factory jobs held by residents of Massachusetts and New Hampshire that otherwise are likely to be transferred to China.

Creditors, who have announced plans to move production overseas if they take control of the company, have given Feuerstein and his family until Sept. 10 to complete the financing of his plan to buy back the company his grandfather founded early in the 1900s — a company that says it has turned in $1 billion worth of export sales in the past decade.

Ex-Im has made a tentative commitment of a $20 million loan guarantee, but the company says it needs at least $35 million to make the financing work. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, the two Republican senators from New Hampshire and the Democratic delegation from Massachusetts, led by Sen. Ted Kennedy, all have urged Ex-Im Chairman Philip Merrill to help the company and save the jobs.

At a time when growing national attention — symbolized by a Labor Day speech by President Bush — has focused on the loss of manufacturing jobs, this would seem like a no-brainer. But so far, Ex-Im and Chairman Merrill are balking.

“If somebody wants to save this plant,” Merrill said in an interview, “either the equity participants (that Feuerstein has persuaded to loan him some of the needed capital) or other domestic lenders will have to provide additional financing support, or the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire will have to commit more resources. This bank has a very narrow window, and we are not in the business of financing factories.”

Ex-Im officials told Malden Mills that $20 million was the most it could guarantee, based on the company’s export-related inventory and export accounts receivable. The political figures supporting the company argued that Congress in 1998 broadened Ex-Im’s charter to permit loans backed by the value of plants and equipment in order to promote exports and save U.S. jobs. Doing that would increase the loan guarantee Malden Mills could receive.

Merrill said, “That is legally correct, but that doesn’t mean it is our customary practice. Our policy has been to finance exports — the movement of goods and services — not factories.”

In practice, that means that giants such as General Electric and Boeing get help from the agency in selling locomotives to Brazil or airplanes to Cathay Pacific, but it apparently bars a full aid package for a small manufacturer trying to resist the out-sourcing of jobs in his industry.

But Feuerstein refuses to accept defeat. “I’m happy they are still considering our case,” he said in a telephone interview. “Their mission is almost the same as mine — to maintain the American manufacturing base. I feel the obligation to help my community and my people. And I’m sure they want to save manufacturing in this country.”

One would hope so.