The owners of a Maple Ridge cedar mill that was destroyed by fire Sunday says he wants to rebuild, despite their losses.
Waldun Forest Products owner Kirk Nagy said Sunday he wasn’t certain if the family-owned business, located near the Lougheed Highway in Ruskin, would be rebuilt -- but on Monday, Nagy announced that he hopes to lease machines at nearby mills and restart production.
“As long as the insurance company is fair with us and our bank’s fair with us, we're going to rebuild,” Nagy said.
Unfortunately for the mill’s roughly 60 employees who are now out of work, that process could still take months.
Some workers say the mill, which caught fire shortly before Midnight Saturday and was fully engulfed within a half hour, was more than just a job.
"I don't know what I’m going to do now,” said Jasveer Dhaliwal, who worked for the company for 22 years. "It's not like (a) mill burning; it's like my house as well."
Waldun Forest Products is one of the world’s largest suppliers of cedar roofing supplies. Calls from concerned clients started pouring in on Monday with additional orders following news of the fire.
Nagy assured Monday that enough shakes and shingles were salvaged to meet current client demand.
The facility wasn’t operating when the blaze began, and Worksafe BC and fire officials are still investigating whether it might have been human-caused or sparked by a mechanical defect.
Some workers believe the fire spread fast because recent hot, dry weather had left the cedar dry.
This is 2012’s third mill fire in B.C. Fires at Burns Lake and Prince George killed four people earlier this year.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Bhinder Sajan
