Pellet plant may reopen doors today Corinth building damaged by rafter fire on Tuesday

CORINTH – A wood pellet plant in Corinth may reopen today after a fire that halted production Tuesday.

Original damage estimates from the Corinth Fire Chief came in at $45,000, but the plant’s managing director, George Soffron, said he’s “guessing it can’t be more than $30,000 or $40,000.”

No injuries were reported in the Tuesday morning fire at Corinth Wood Pellets Manufacturing LLC that Fire Chief Scott Bragdon said likely was ignited by a spark from an exterior burner that got into the rafters of the metal-roofed building.

“The fire was mainly outside with some embers that got into rafters at the very end of the building,” Soffron said. “We’re delighted to find that there seems to be very little damage.”

The metal roof made it more difficult for firefighters to reach the attic area, and then they had to sort through about a foot of insulation and wet the area down to make sure there were no more embers.

When it opened in March 2007, the company, owned by Ken Eldridge, was touted as the largest of its kind in the United States and was set to produce an estimated 140,000 tons of wood pellets per year for sale both domestically and overseas. It initially employed about a dozen workers and that number has now passed 25 employees.

In the near future, Soffron said he expects the plant to employ about 40 people. Company officials are in the process of planning an approximately two-week shutdown to upgrade the facility so that it can produce 300,000 tons of wood pellets per year, Soffran said.

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