A recovery boiler at Canfor Pulp's Northwood Pulpmill will be down for at least two weeks following a breakdown over the weekend.
About 60 employees were evacuated from the site for two hours after the operator heard a bang at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Both of the mill's boilers were shut down as a precaution, said general manager Robert Dufresne.
"Fortunately, nobody was injured but we definitely had some damage to the boiler as well as to the upper floor," Dufresne said.
An inspection of the boiler's exterior was carried out and an interior search for the cause began Tuesday after the boiler had cooled down enough and scaffolding was erected inside.
"We know what's damaged on the outside of the boiler," Dufresne said.
"We know that we have some cladding and some structure repair to do on the upper floor and we know we had some damage inside but it's from what we've seen from outside. It's like looking at a house through the window - you could guess at the damage but you'll only know for sure once you get inside."
The boiler went through a $107.2-million upgrade last year as one of four projects for which Canfor Pulp received $122 million from the federal government through its green transformation fund, after putting in a further $33 million of its own money.
"We don't know yet if it's an old part of the boiler or if it's the new one," Dufresne said, adding that the boiler had been operating without trouble for the six months since it was first started up.
"There was no sign of anything pending and we were not pushing the boiler hard trying to do something different," Dufresne said.
He expects the cause will be found in the next few days and then it will probably take another week to repair.
Orders from customers will continue to be met, Dufresne said.
"We have reorganized our production between the other two facilities [PG Pulp and Intercontintental] and our other line running [at Northwood] so that's no problem there, we'll be able to satisfy our customers," Dufresne said.
