A cedar mill in Tseshaht First Nation was destroyed in an early-morning fire Tuesday.
The Port Alberni Fire Department responded to the blaze in the 6000-block of Hector Road around 3:30 a.m. to find the structure fully engulfed.
On and off-duty firefighters were called in to fight the fire, including crews from the Sproat Lake Volunteer Fire Department, said Port Alberni Fire Chief Mike Owen.
There was no fire hydrant near the mill, so the crews from Sproat Lake brought water tenders to help douse the flames.
Firefighters spent three hours extinguishing the fire before turning the scene over to RCMP to investigate the cause, Owens said.
“The challenge was probably just in being a cedar mill, there was such a large volume of fuel that was there, in terms of both the structure as well as the mill lumber that was present,” Owens said.
The mill was not operating at the time of the fire. A caretaker who was on the scene at the time reported it and used a small fire pump to prevent the blaze from spreading to a nearby forested area.
While crews were tending to the mill fire, they received a call for a fire on a hedge adjacent to a house.
One crew was able to respond to that call and prevent it from spreading to the home, Owens said.
