By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Firefighters spent three hours this morning dousing smoldering sawdust at a Centralia mill.
Crews responded about 8:50 a.m. to a fire alarm at Sierra Pacific in the Port of Centralia’s industrial park on Kuper Road, according to Riverside Fire Authority.
“We ended up having a fire in the bag house, where all the sawdust from the mill goes,” Fire Capt. Greg Schwartz said.
A pair of employees were already using an on-site hydrant and spraying water on the structure, he said. Schwartz described the bag house, or hopper, as a very large metal container outside the main building.
“It was one of these long, drawn out procedures to get it cooled down to be able to access the panels,” Schwartz said.
With workers’ assistance, firefighters were able get the panels open to hose down the contents of the hopper, he said.
Nobody was injured.