This was updated at 9:01 a.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A 20-year-old worker was killed yesterday in an accident at Hampton’s lumber mill in Morton.
Authorities are investigating.
Sheriff’s detectives were called about 11:15 a.m. to the saw mill on state Route 7 just north of town.
He was working on machinery when he died, and had last been seen on a break between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., Sheriff’s Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said this morning.
Hampton Affiliates, based in Portland, Ore., identified the employee yesterday as Dillan Davis, 20, of Randle.
“No words can express our sorrow to the family of Dillan and his friends throughout the Cowlitz Valley,” Steve Zika, CEO of Hampton Affiliates said in a news release.
The mill has been shut down until further notice, according to Zika.
Investigators from Labor and Industries are looking into the death to determine what happened, according to an agency spokesperson.
“We have begun an investigation, but at the moment all we know is that the worker was found on a conveyor fatally injured,” spokesperson Hector Castro said this morning
Castro said it was his understanding the young man has worked at the mill since October, and was employed at its Randle facility since last year.
An autopsy is scheduled for this afternoon.
The Lewis County mill is among eight owned by Hampton Affiliates in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Its hard to see a fellow graduate pass on after graduating only two years ago
There are just no words to describe my sorrow for this family, both the Davis family and the East Lewis County family, a very tight community. All I can do is pray that all will find the strength needed to carry on, and find peace within. RIP young man~
WOW. Tragic for the small community, especially knowing how tight-knit the milling/logging industry is. How much sadder hearing that Mom lost two kids in two years… that’s two kids too many. Many prayers for those surviving!
Dillan was a very close friend of mine and when I found out what had happened to him I was crushed he was the most fun person to be around no matter what the circumstances were he was a very hard worker and if he wanted something he did everything he could to get it he loved his job and Lewis county he never wanted to leave please pray for him and his family they are all such good people
WOW, I don’t know him, but I work in the forest industry, and know how it has changed… to Randle … What to say… Gee I can’t say what I feel now
So sad…. I went to school with him and lived right down the street from him.. My prayers go out to his parents. Now they have lost both children…. Rest In Peace
And his sister died in a car accident two years ago. His mom keeps a memorial on hwy 12. There is a full blown xmas tree there now. Lost both kids. Tragic.
how sad my prayers go out to the family