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By Adrian Nieoczym
The manager of Gorman’s Mill, Nick Arkle, says he hopes to begin delivering lumber orders to customers this week and resume regular operations by next week.
“This has been a very difficult few years for the lumber industry,” he said. And so when a mill actually has customers who want wood, it needs to deliver.
The mill came close to being gobbled up by the Glenrosa blaze that did get get two of Arkle’s brother-in-laws homes and came quite close to getting his.
“I think there was a moment in time they [mill employees] were concerned the whole mill could have gone up,” he said.
But because of the heroic efforts of fire-fighters and the mill’s staff, the family business which employs 300 people, is not only still standing but ready to get back into operation.
The 15 to 20 employees who were on shift at the mill when the fire rolled towards it Saturday afternoon were joined by another 15 to 20 workers who showed up to help out. Together, they managed to put out a roof that caught fire and then spent the rest of night putting out spot fires and monitoring for sparks.
The fire did manage to destroy about 800,000 board feet of lumber, representing about a day-and-a-half of production, but it’s amazing it didn’t get more.
“It’s lumber products, so there’s a lot that can catch fire,” said Arkle. “There were hydrants open and hoses going everywhere.”
Arkle said he isn’t really surprised his employees stepped up when the mill was in danger.
“It’s more than a family business,” he said. “It’s an extended family.”
As it stands now, the mill is an area still under an evacuation order but Arkle is hopeful it will be lifted soon and the mill can start getting customers their lumber.
“Obviously, our employees want to get back to work as quickly as possible,” he said.
adrian@kelowna.com/(250)575-3517
Tags: fire, gorman's mill, Kelowna, Nick Arkle, West Kelowna
