PITTSFIELD – A smoky, stubborn fire that was likely started with a single spark in a wood shavings chute heavily damaged a silo, equipment and the roof at the Hancock Lumber mill Friday morning.

More than 30 firefighters from six departments spent four hours fighting the fire, which spread from the shavings chute into the storage silo, then burrowed its way back into the mill’s roof.

At one point, the fire inside the cyclone silo, a 30-foot-tall structure on the mill’s roof, was so fierce that the metal panels of the silo were glowing from the heat.

The shavings created inside the mill are blown into the chute, then into the silo, where they are slowly fed into a bagging process. The bags of shavings are then sold.

Firefighters were able to stop the fire from spreading beyond the immediate area of the silo, a feat that Assistant Fire Chief Dean Billings called “an incredible save.”

Billings said that a planer striking a rock or piece of metal likely shot a spark into the wood shavings chute, a metal tube about 4 feet in diameter, while employees worked. A fan that draws the shavings up into the chute provided enough oxygen for the spark to ignite the shavings, Billings said.

The fire crept up the length of the chute, at least 100 feet, into the storage silo, burned through the silo, and ignited the wooden structure at the base of the silo, which rests on the roof of the mill. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze from both above and below as they worked from inside the mill and from on the roof.

Skowhegan firefighters arrived with an aerial truck, which gave them the opportunity to soak the burning shavings further through the top of the silo.

“I am so thankful that truck arrived from Skowhegan,” Billings said. “That saved a lot of manpower.”

About 60 workers were evacuated and sent home when the fire was reported about 9 a.m. No one was injured.

“There is some damage,” said Kevin Hynes, Hancock Lumber’s chief operating officer for sawmill operations. “It will be hard to tell until we are able to get inside just what we lost. I know we lost some equipment and lost some electric components,” said Hynes, who is based in Casco but was on the scene Friday.

Hynes said a crew would be on the scene this weekend, cleaning up the debris from the fire and making repairs.

“We will be open next week,” Hynes said. “We can’t afford any lost time. This is a strained industry.”

Hancock Lumber has both a mill and a wholesale and retail outlet in Pittsfield.

Statewide, Hancock Lumber buys $5 million worth of logs a year for its three sawmills and $1.2 million worth just for the Pittsfield facility. It is estimated that the local mill contributes $1.7 million a year into the local economy.

Firefighters from Pittsfield, Newport, Detroit, St. Albans, Hartland and Skowhegan fought the fire while Clinton firefighters provided station coverage for Pittsfield.

Sebasticook Valley Hospital’s ambulance and Detroit Rescue were on the scene but were not needed.

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