Fire damages Irving Sawmill
in Nashville Plantation
NASHVILLE PLANTATION, Maine — A firefighter suffered minor injuries early last Wednesday morning as volunteers from four local departments battled a small fire for nearly five hours at the Irving Sawmill, according to Ashland Fire Chief Donald Bouley.
He said the Dec. 2, 2015 fire started about 4:30 a.m., when employees were doing maintenance in a building. Sparks from a grinder are suspected of having ignited the blaze.
“It was between shifts, and employees were evacuating when we got there,” Bouley said. “We had about 25 firefighters there for 4½ hours working. We had to cut a couple of holes in the building, but other than that, there was not too much damage. They were lucky.”
The Ashland Fire Department was joined in fighting the fire by firefighters from the Mapleton, Masardis and Portage departments.
Bouley said a Mapleton firefighter cut his fingers and was taken to a hospital for treatment. The chief believed the firefighter required stitches. Bouley said he was not sure how it happened, because he did not see the incident.
Bouley said the Nashville Plantation sawmill employees were able to go back to work immediately after the fire was extinguished.
“We were able to release the building back to them, and they started to repair the building immediately and resume work,” he said.
