About 300 workers from a Prince George, B.C., plywood plant, which has been destroyed by a massive fire, met with officials from employer Canfor Corp. Wednesday to talk about their future.
Their work prospects have been clouded by the impact of a fire, which started at the North Central Plywood plant in the city's industrial park on Monday evening.
It later spread to a warehouse building nearly 2 kilometres away when sparks ignited material at the warehouse.
Both structures were destroyed by the fire, which was finally brought under control by local fire and rescue crews on Tuesday afternoon.
The unionized plywood plant workers are entitled to employment insurance of up to $435 per week for the immediate future, the company said, but the long-term future was less clear.
The company has not decided whether it will rebuild the plant at all, and if it does, it would take at least 18 months.
It will be months before insurance estimates are complete.
Prince George Mayor Colin Kingsley said the fire could be detrimental to the local economy, which has already been suffering as a result of a downturn in B.C.'s forestry sector.
"It's the perfect storm, given the lumber market, and here we have a successful plywood plant and those jobs are down," said Kingsley.
An estimated 3,500 people are currently unemployed in Prince George.
"It's certainly a sad moment ... you (have to) go out for the workers and their families to be faced with this," Kingsley said on Wednesday. "But the support is out there. First thing this morning, I had a call from (B.C.) Premier (Gordon) Campbell."
There is no official word on the cause of the fire, but workers say it may have started in one of the plant's three veneer dryers.
Officials from the city and Canfor agreed it is remarkable no one was hurt or injured in the incident.
With files from The Canadian Press and a report from CTV British Columbia's Carrie Stephanson
