A potentially-disastrous situation at the Abitibi-Consolidated mill here Saturday afternoon was kept in check by some quick-thinking employees who teamed up to contain a fire that had broken out in the basement under the No. 7 paper machine.
Acting Fire Chief Hugh McKinnon said the call came into the Fort Frances Fire Department around 3:35 p.m., but added the drama was practically over by the time crews arrived on the scene minutes later.
“The mill had it under control,” said McKinnon.
“We were down there for an hour putting out hotspots and cleaning up,” he added.
There were no injuries from the blaze, which acting mill manager Trevor Gibson attributed to an overheated bearing on the felt rack in the machine’s dryer.
“The majority of the damage is to some electrical cables,” said Gibson, who added the machine was up and running again around 10:30 p.m. yesterday.
“It was a serious enough fire. It had the potential to be a lot worse, but everyone on our crews receives fire training.”^Gibson, who could not give any damage estimates when reached this morning, said the fire was “quite out of the ordinary” for the mill and couldn’t recall the last time one occurred within the building.
A small fire occurred Oct. 8 on the roof of the kraft mill, but it was extinguished shortly afterwards with no injuries reported.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
