Sexton Lumber shutdown ‘affects everybody’: N.L. forestry association

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): About 100 Sexton Lumber employees have been laid off following a fire that shut down the Bloomfield sawmill nearly two weeks ago, according to owner Kevin Sexton.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Forestry Industry Association announced Monday that the province's biggest sawmill was shut down until further notice.

"It's an awful poor time to have to lay employees off ... unfortunately, at the moment, there's nothing we can do," Sexton said in an interview with CBC Radio's On The Go Tuesday evening.

Sexton hopes repairs will be completed in about three weeks.

He said the fire occurred on Oct. 29 in the facility's boiler room while wood was drying out. A worker was going through his nightly routine when he noticed smoke bellowing out of the exhaust fans.

Sexton said as soon as he heard, he called a nearby fire department, and the company's power engineers, for access to the room.

"By the time that we'd done all that, it was too late. The whole place was engulfed," said Sexton.

Soon enough, the fuel barn — which stores the byproducts of the mill process — was up in flames.

"There was approximately seven to eight tractor trailer loads of planer shavings in that fuel barn that just exploded," Sexton continued.

The forestry industry association said one employee was injured while helping firefighters get to the scene, but is recovering well.

An investigation into the fire is underway.

Sexton said it could be the end of the year before operations at the mill are up and running as normal.

N.L. Forestry Industry Association executive director Bill Dawson said the fire caused “considerable damage.”

Dawson couldn't speak to the monetary value of the lost time, but he said the impact of the facility's temporary closure is “huge.”

“We’re very much integrated as a sector here,” Dawson said. “It affects everybody.”

He said that impact stretches beyond the province’s forestry industry into the agricultural sector.

Courtesy: www.cbc.ca