Operations are expected to resume in 30 days at the fire-damaged Plum Creek Medium Density Fiberboard plant in Columbia Falls.

That word came Wednesday afternoon from Tom Ray, vice president of Northwest Resources and Manufacturing for Plum Creek Timber Co.

The seven-acre plant was hit by explosions and then a massive fire Tuesday afternoon.

Production at the plant, which employs 183 people, has been suspended while the company investigates the cause of the incident.

According to Ray, “Operations are expected to resume in approximately 30 days. We will provide an update to our plans should that be necessary.”  

The adjacent Plum Creek sawmill and plywood mills remain in operation and deliveries from existing fiberboard inventory resumed Wednesday.  

Other than minor cases of smoke inhalation, there were no injuries Tuesday. There were 66 workers and two contractors who were successfully evacuated from the burning plant.

Residual fire activity Wednesday morning drew firefighters back to the scene just after 4 a.m.

Plum Creek spokeswoman Kate Tate said part of the reason the plant will be able to reopen so soon is because of the excellent job done by emergency responders, preventing all but a little damage to equipment, although there was water damage to the building.

Nearly 70 responders from 14 different emergency agencies joined the battle against the massive fire, according to Columbia Falls Fire Chief Rick Hagen.

Hagen said there was at least one explosion at the sprawling MDF plant shortly after 3 p.m. — with a second explosion reported but not confirmed — that caused fires in several areas inside the plant.

When the first crews arrived on scene, Plum Creek employees were battling the fire.

“They have a complete hydrant system and all the sprinklers and deluge systems in those areas were activated, and they were manning their own in-plant hose line,” Hagen said.

He said “there’s no doubt” the sprinkler systems kept the fire from spreading.

“They help in all types of structures, residential or commercial, and they definitely did their job here,” Hagen said. “But they can’t get everywhere when you have an explosion like that.”

The employees, who helped further by beginning to shut off power before utility company representatives arrived, were immediately pulled back and replaced by firefighters with breathing gear.  

Once the employees were all accounted for and the gas and power were shut off, the myriad firefighters from across the valley were split into three divisions due to the layout of the multi-story plant and the location of different fires.

“They pretty much operated independently of one another, covering their own particular portion of the building,” Hagen said. “As they ran out of air they would rotate fresh crews in and they just kept rotating people.”

Hagen said there were fires all over the place “from pretty good-sized fires to spot fires.”

All the emergency responders left the scene sometime before 10 p.m., but Plum Creek representatives stayed there overnight to monitor the plant.

That watch turned out to not be in vain, when firefighters were sent back to the facility at about 4 a.m. Wednesday morning for a fire in a raw materials storage building.

“We had people check this building and had some fires outside of it [on Tuesday] but were pretty confident that it hadn’t gotten inside the building,” Hagen said.

He said the storage building was connected to the main MDF plant by conveyors and duct work.

The last firefighters were leaving early Wednesday afternoon after putting out the fire and standing by while Plum Creek employees washed down the building, trying to get all the combustible materials blown onto the floor.

Hagen said he had never dealt with an incident involving so much manpower and equipment.

“We’ve had some big incidents out here in the past but it’s been quite a while ago,” he said. “I would guess this is probably the biggest one that I’ve seen.”

He called the mutual aid system in the Flathead Valley “outstanding” and said the incident was a perfect example of why it is in place.

“Obviously this was way beyond what one fire department could handle, and every piece of apparatus that I requested responded and everything went just the way it was supposed to,” Hagen said. “Everybody pitched in and we all worked together well.”

He said the resources used at the fire were chosen so no one portion of the valley was left without all its resources.

“When you have this many agencies, the rest of the valley is having to pick up the slack, but it all worked in this case and I was really happy with everybody that came and helped. It was a real professional group,” he said.

During the regular meeting of the Flathead Emergency Communications Center board Wednesday afternoon, Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial praised emergency responders as well as the central dispatch system that helped them organize during the fire.

“Things worked perfect, I mean they were perfect,” Dial said. “There were no complaints, everything went well and thankfully no one was hurt or killed.”

Elizabeth Brooks, director of the communications center, also praised the work of her employees.

“Our dispatchers did an outstanding job, and a major call that would have taken many more steps to dispatch prior to consolidation was streamlined due to everyone being in the same room,” Brooks said. “FECC dispatchers do fantastic work every day and the way they handled the incident at Plum Creek is a perfect example of the professionalism we constantly strive for.”

Ray said the company was thankful all its employees were safe and offered his gratitude to emergency responders.

“Everyone at Plum Creek commends the efforts by fire departments to protect the people working at the facility,” Ray said in a news release. “Their work is greatly appreciated.”

The Plum Creek Medium Density Fiberboard plant uses powerful grinding machines to reduce wood into fibers that are treated with resin-based glue and compressed at high pressure and temperature into panels.  

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.