Vacant Sawmill Fire Battled by Crews in Port Alberni, BC
Firefighters battled a blaze in a shuttered sawmill in Port Alberni this week.
“We received multiple 9-1-1 calls just after 9 a.m. and as crews were descending down the hill into the site you could see that there was quite a significant plume of black smoke emanating from a number of sides of the building,” Port Alberni Fire Chief Mike Owens told CHEK News.
The sawmill has been shutdown since 2017 and has been undergoing deconstruction.
“Certainly being an old industrial site there’d be some wood in there that would be saturated with oil over the years, and there would still probably be a bit of conveyor in there and that sort of thing,” the chief said.
About the Author
Susan Nicol
News Editor
Susan Nicol is the news editor for Firehouse.com. She is a life member and active with the Brunswick Volunteer Ambulance & Rescue Company, Oxford Fire Company and Brunswick Vol. Fire Co. Susie has been an EMT in Maryland since 1976. Susie is vice-president of the Frederick County Fire/Rescue Museum. She is on the executive committee of Frederick County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association. She also is part of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS) Region II EMS Council. Susie is a board member of the American Trauma Society, Maryland Division. Prior to joining the Firehouse team, she was a staff writer for The Frederick News-Post, covering fire, law enforcement, court and legislative issues.
