At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, an explosion on the end of the West Pine MDF plant, a divison of West Fraser Mills Ltd., triggered an immediate evacuation of the plant. It was quickly verified that all employees and staff evacuated without injury.
Eye witness Mike Savage, from his vantage point in the Pinnacles Park area, said he heard the first explosion, then turned around and witnessed the second explosion.
“From the time they got there, the fire fighters aggressivley fought the fire,” he said.
“When we saw the flames coming out of the stack, we thought the mill was gone but due to
the efforts of those fire professionals, they saved the mill.”
He added they could see the blown out wall caused by the explosion.
The first fire truck was on scene within five minutes, according to Mayor Bob Simpson and very quickly volunteer fire fighters and fire hall staff were on scene with all available fire fighting resources.
“Great kudos for the massive full complement of fire fighters from all city halls who arrived very quickly,” Simpson said.
“We had full turn out from volunteers, 32 of 37 fire fighters responded.”
Simpson, who was also on site, said the intial fire was first fought outside the facility and once that was under control, fire fighters moved into the building dealing with various hot spots inside.
“What it shows us is our fire crews are trained in industrial fire fighting and that training paid off as they fought this fire strategically and deliberately,” he said.
He went on to say West Fraser will be conducting a full and complete investigation of this fire.
“It’s in their hands now,” he said.
The fire fighters efforts continued for several hours after the main fire was out. West Pine has 100 employees including staff and crew. Simpson described the operation.
“The plant, under full production takes wood waste and sawmill residuals, digests that material and then presses it to create a panel or board that can be made into various types of wood products.”
The Observer will continue to report as information is available.