PANGUITCH, Utah — It may seem like a small part of a lumber mill went down in flames overnight Wednesday, but that fire is burning into the heart of a Southern Utah town.
Investigators still don’t know why a fire broke out in the machinery that cuts logs into lumber at K & D Forest Products, one of the larger lumber mills in the state.
Panguitch’s fire chief said the state fire marshall will investigate further.
“It's a pretty devastating fire,” said Dave Dodds, chief of the Panguitch Fire Department. "This is the sawmill part where they take the logs in and square it up and start making boards and stuff. So that kinda shuts down the whole operation.”
Officials say a concrete mixer operator near the area reported the blaze Wednesday at 10:30 p.m.
“I was working and I could smell it, smell like electrical fire, like wires burning. And my first thought it was one of the pieces of equipment around here,” said Martin Bridges, who is the on-site mechanic for Garfield Ready Mix. “I got out and started looking around and then I seen the glow back up across the street and got in the truck and headed up and found the fire up there.”
Fire departments from Panguitch Lake, Bryce Canyon City, Tropic and Henrieville eventually responded.
Efforts to put out the fire continued until 4:30 a.m.
While the fire didn't spread to the nearby lumber, the intense heat of the flames damaged the machinery. According to the owner Kevin Frandsen, the site has been family-owned for generations.
The Frandsens said they were too distraught to speak as were many onlookers who came to check in on them. Besides Penguitch’s farms, the mill is the biggest industry in what is the largest city in Garfield County, but has a small population under 1700.
“I'm not sure how many of the employees they've got. I'm guessing 20, 25, somewhere in there in little town of 1500. That's a lot of families,” Bridges said. “There're gonna be a couple years probably rebuilding and whatnot and that's a long time to be without employees and then people are gonna move on as life moves on. So, yeah, gonna be a rough one.”
