A fire at Paper Excellence’s Port Alberni mill that sent thick black smoke high into the sky on Friday was “a minor fire,” according to the mill’s general manager.
Walter Tarnowsky, in a statement e-mailed to the Alberni Valley News, said “it was a minor fire that was extinguished by mill crews” and that there were no injuries.
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The smoke from the fire was visible from many parts of Port Alberni around 8:30-9 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 3. Tarnowsky did not say which part of the mill had caught fire.
The Port Alberni Fire Department was called as a precaution, and trucks from Beaver Creek, Cherry Creek and Sproat Lake volunteer fire departments also responded under an automatic mutual aid agreement for structure fires.
Tarnowsky said crews were already in the process of restarting the mill by 1:30 p.m.
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