A blaze Saturday at the tissue mill in Baileyville caused minor damage after a natural gas-fired burner malfunctioned, according to a mill spokesman.
The roof was damaged where an emissions stack extends through to the outside, Scott Beal of St. Croix Tissue said, and “several rolls of finished tissue products” were damaged from water used to put the fire out.
No one was hurt in the fire, according to Beal.
The flames were ignited by a burner associated with Tissue Machine No. 1, which is used as part of the tissue-drying process, according to Beal. The machine is one of two tissue-manufacturing lines that were installed at the mill in 2016, when operations at the Woodland Pulp plant were expanded to include tissue production.
Firefighters from Baileyville, Alexander, Calais and Princeton responded after mill workers reported the blaze Saturday afternoon, Beal said.
“There was no damage to our tissue machines, both of which safely restarted operations a few hours after the fire was extinguished,” he said. Repairs were made to the natural gas burner system to prevent further fires.