Lakeland Mill was the site of a fire on Sunday morning that took all morning to put entirely out. Prince George Fire Rescue Service sent crews to battle the blaze at about 8 a.m. and they remained on the scene until approximately 2 p.m.
"There is a collection area for sawdust, a building called the bag house," said deputy fire chief John Iverson. "There was a fire in that building, but there was no equipment in there, no damage, nobody in danger of injury, just dust and sawdust burning."
The main fire was out quickly. The majority of their time was spent dousing any doubts that it would flare back up later.
"It is typical of any fire at any sawmill, that we have to be careful that hotspots and sparks are extinguished and not left smoldering," he said.
The small fires in mill areas are not uncommon, said Iverson, and usually handily extinguished, but firefighters have to act quickly and spent the time to properly mop up due to the levels of flammable material all around.
"Modern mills are prepared well for that," he said. "They have designed that into how they handle their waste products, so it is apart from sensitive areas that could be substantially damaged in a fire, and most mills have their own suppression crew to keep fires under control until we can get there."
One PGFRS crew attacked the fire while another stood by at the mill but was not required.
