Electrical panels focus of sawmill fire probe

WEST ENFIELD – State investigators are examining electrical panels to see whether a short sparked the fire that destroyed a wood mill off Route 155 this weekend, causing about $2 million in damage, mill officials said Tuesday.

State Fire Marshal’s Office investigators want to see whether the fire was sparked by a short in the sawmill at Cold Stream Lumber Co. A short blew out the building’s main power panels about two years ago and shut down the mill for two or three days, Steve Hamilton, company comptroller, said.

“That’s one of the theories they are working on,” Hamilton said Tuesday.

Sgt. Stu Jacobs of the State Fire Marshal’s Office has declined to comment on the fire since it was reported at about 1:20 a.m. Saturday. No cause for the blaze has been determined, Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland said Tuesday.

Cold Stream officials will be meeting with their work force at 2 p.m. today to announce the first layoffs at the 50-employee company caused by the fire, Hamilton said.

And contrary to workers who complained bitterly Monday that the state wasn’t helping the company, the state Labor Department’s rapid response team will be there to offer assistance, Laura Fortman, department director said. State officials have been in contact with company officials since Monday, she said.

About 25 to 30 workers will be laid off, Hamilton said.

The company’s owners, Bruce Hamilton of Brewer – Steve Hamilton’s father – and Fred Schult of Hampden, hope that the layoffs will be temporary and that more won’t be needed within the next month or two, when the company’s stockpiles of cut white pine are exhausted.

“I am going to keep an optimistic outlook and say that I think we will be able to keep some crew around,” Steve Hamilton said Tuesday. “The general consensus is that it’s starting to look like we will be able to rebuild, but it’s still very early to say that we will be.

“We are starting to organize to get some equipment in that we need to keep going,” he added.

The sawmill building at Cold Stream, 542 Hammett Road, was ablaze from end to end when the first firefighters arrived. It contained a profile machine, tub grinders, saw sharpeners and other equipment that the company will need to continue running wood planers and kilns left undamaged by the fire, Hamilton said.

The owners are considering several options to keep the company going until they can rebuild, including renting the remaining operations to other companies, Hamilton said.

Insurance adjusters were meeting with the owners Tuesday and starting to lay out options, Hamilton said. The owners want to rebuild on site, having done about $750,000 worth of upgrades to the facility over the last few years, but much depends on the insurance settlement, they said.

Meanwhile, the state’s rapid response team will help the laid-off workers determine what their options are. The team will interview the workers and try to help them garner whatever state assistance they qualify for, Fortman said. The laid-off workers should be on unemployment within eight days.

“We try to provide as much help to those workers as we can as quickly as we can,” she said.

Cold Stream annually cuts about 12 million feet of white pine for wholesale distribution.