GASTON, Ore.
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Washington County sheriff's deputies say a man was killed and two others were injured in an explosion at Stimson Lumber in Gaston.
A Gaston fire district spokesman says the men were dismantling a piece of equipment called a hydraulic accumulator, a 6-foot pressurized steel pipe. They didn't realize the pressure hadn't been released and the cap on one end of the pipe blew off, hitting two of them at about 12:40 p.m. Wednesday.
"The cap exploded from the end of the canister, striking two of the workers and injuring a third," said Gaston Fire District spokesman, Ken Bilderback.
Steve Allen, 60, was rushed by a LifeFlight helicopter to Legacy Emanuel Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
"With Steve, I've known him as long as I've been in business," said Harold Long, who runs a tire business in Gaston.
Long said Allen was a nice, honest man who was just a few weeks away from retiring.
"We go to swap meets together and do all sorts of things. He likes old cars, loves fiddling around with mechanical stuff all the time," Long said.
Paramedics took a second worker to the same hospital by ambulance and entered him into the trauma system.
The third worker suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Tuality Community Hospital.
The injured workers' names haven't been publicly released.
Word of the fatal accident spread quickly in the small community.
"So, anything that is associated with that mill affects us," said Cheri Klauman, who owns a nearby convenience store.
Forest Grove firefighters say they helped Gaston fire crews at the scene, which is about seven miles south of Forest Grove in Washington County.
Stimson Lumber is a family-owned company based in Portland. It manages about 500,000 acres of timber land in the western U.S.
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