News brief: Equipment fire doused at Ony mill site

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Firefighters point their hoses at front end loader. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Fire District 1

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Crews called to a fire at the old Alexander Lumber Mill in Onalaska last night found a front-end loader burning.

The machine operator had been putting sawdust into a large hopper and said he felt heat on his backside, turned around to look and saw flames, according to Lewis County Fire District 1.

Assistant Fire Chief Rhonda Volk said they were joined by a tender from Lewis County Fire District 5.

The call came about 8:10 p.m. to state Route 508, just west of town. The new business at the site works around the clock, Volk said.

The fire was extinguished. The front end loader is a total loss, but nobody was hurt, Volk said.

Volk said they have an idea of what may have caused it, but a fire investigator was looking into it.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 23rd, 2017 at 11:00 am and is filed under News briefs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “News brief: Equipment fire doused at Ony mill site”

  1. BobbyinLC says:
    Friday, June 23, 2017 at 10:51 pm

    That’s a real hot seat ha ha. Glad he is okay.