Upwards of 40 employees could be affected by fire

BY CHRIS COWBROUGH
S-E Editor

A fast-moving fire at Vaagen Bros. Lumber Inc. in Colville last Wednesday night caused in excess of $1 million in damage, according to company officials.
The fire started just after 9 p.m. An employee doing a scheduled walk-through in the company’s co-generation facility noticed some “flickering” that looked like flame on one of the camera monitors.
According to company Vice-President, Russ Vaagen, by the time that employee got back to the scene a few moments later with fire extinguishers, flames were shooting up to 20-feet high.
“Those guys sprayed the fire down with as many as three fire extinguishers each,”  Vaagen said of the two employees who initially battled the flames. “But there was nothing they could do.”
The two employees who worked to contain fire were taken to Providence Mount Carmel Hospital in Colville where they were treated for smoke inhalation before being released.
The blaze apparently got its impetus when a lubrication system malfunctioned in the company’s co-generation facility.
According to Colville Volunteer Fire Department Chief, Jeff Pitts, 22 firefighters quickly responded to battle the fire, which seriously damaged the company’s co-generation turbine.

Firefighters on scene until about 1:30 a.m. on Thursday

Fire department crews arrived on scene at the west Colville plant between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m.
Pitts said that firefighters stayed on scene until about 1:30 a.m. on Thursday.
“We probably had the fire out within two hours after we got there, but in a situation like that,  it’s always best to be as thorough as possible.”
Vaagen said that the fire could have been electrical in nature.  An oil-circulating pump may have overheated.
“The turbine uses lubrication oil as it spins,”  Vaagen said, adding that there was “some frying” of wiring under the turbine.
“The oil circulating pump there apparently got very hot, very quickly.  It (fire) went into an electrical switch gear that regulates the flow of power to and from the mill’s power grid.  The switch gear was destroyed.”
The fire interrupted the flow of electricity to the plant, shutting down the mill and kilns.
The affected building and equipment are insured, Vaagen said.
The Vaagen Bros. co-generation turbine generates power that is sold to the electrical grid. On average, the plant’s co-generation plant, which went on line back in 1978 and was cutting edge in its day and years ahead of the so-called “green movement,” generates about three megawatts of power.
The company burns shavings and hog fuel for the plant (a boiler provides steam for the co-generation plant turbine and steam for the dry kilns).  
Vaagen said that the company is in the process of getting power  from Avista Utilities “wired in” to the plant.  He said that power “should be ready to go by Wednesday.”
Vaagen added that an engineer was checking the kiln issue and what it will take to get all four kilns back on line.  
While Vaagen said getting power restored to the entire plant and to the kilns is a relatively short-term proposition, getting the plant’s co-generation capability back is a complex and long-term issue.
“I would think we are probably looking at a one to two-year timeline there,”  Vaagen said about getting the destroyed turbine replaced and back on line.   
While the boiler room was compromised, a concrete wall between the turbine room and the boiler system saved the boiler area from serious damage.

Building will have to be razed

The approximately 35-foot tall building housing the turbine complex on the concrete second level was seriously compromised and will have to come down, Vaagen added.
The fire has put upwards of 20 Vaagen Bros. employees out of work. As many as 40 workers could be affected.
Vaagen conceded that there are more than a few “unknowns” at this juncture.
 While Vaagen said a conservative estimate of damage is certainly in the millions of dollars, “the full extent of damage isn’t known yet.”
Vaagen says he hopes that because of layoffs and down time experienced by employees in the past at the Colville plant, company employees who are affected by the fire won’t have to wait long for unemployment benefits.
The company had recently gone to two shifts.
“We will get the plant back and fully operational as soon as we can,”  the company vice president promised, adding that the plant has a back-up natural gas boiler that will allow two of the four kilns on site to operate.
“We know that we have a pretty big hole to dig out of,” Vaagen conceded.  “But we’re also pretty confident that things will be back to normal fairly soon, although we won’t be producing power any time soon.”
Vaagen said that if and when Vaagen Bros. gets back into the production of electricity, there will likely be some grants available for new equipment and some renewable energy “green” credits will be in the offing. The company also may look at a plant that can generate upwards of 10 megawatts of power.  
Vaagen indicated last week following the fire that the company had a two-week supply of lumber.
“We hope that restoration work can get done quickly enough so we can keep the supply moving to our customers,”  he said.