Recent upgrades to a Fort St. James fencing mill in the region have gone up in smoke, putting more than a dozen jobs in jeopardy.
The fire at the KDL wood fencing factory is under investigation. Mill co-owner Ben Hoy said the damage was significant.
"It's hard to tell just how bad it is, at this point, but certainly this is hard news for us. We still don't know the full extent of the damage, and we don't know the cause, that all still has to be investigated," Hoy said. "We are just relieved and glad that no one was injured. None of our staff was on site at the time."
The fire was noticed at about 5 a.m. Friday morning. The mill is located in the Fort St. James industrial area so municipal firefighters arrived as soon as the alarm was called in.
"They were here quickly, and we were pleased with their response," said Hoy.
Approximately 14 staff work at the manufacturing business. Also affected are various goods and services suppliers, and the customers who buy the posts and rails made at the facility.
Hoy would not speculate on the the potential spinoff effect until after the full extent of the damage was calculated.
KDL Group has an overall employment base of 150 people in their various departments. They have an array of resource industry activities, including logging, road building, forestry management and more. The company was started up in 1975 by David Hoy who eventually passed operations on to the next generation.
The wood fencing mill was a seven-year-old venture, said Hoy, and it was set to grow.
"There had been some recent upgrades to the facility. We were primarily improving the efficiency of the plant and increasing production," he said.
