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June 4, 2008

Morning fire damages a sawmill in Foster

FOSTER -- A fire early this morning damaged Winsor Forest Products, a sawmill at 55 Winsor Rd.

Foster Police Lt. Robert Bolger said the fire broke out early this morning and was reported by a motorist at around 6:45 a.m. No one was at the sawmill at the time of the fire.

The town’s three volunteer fire departments -- Foster Center, South Foster and Moosup Valley fire companies -- as well as departments from Scituate, responded.

Bolger said that when emergency personnel arrived, the 5,000-square-foot metal and steel sawmill was engulfed in flames.

To combat the fire, firefighters had to truck in water from a nearby river because, like the rest of town, there are no fire hydrants. The fire was contained by 8 a.m. Firefighters remained on the scene putting down hot spots until about 10:30 a.m., Bolger said.

The sawmill is next to some residences and is near the State Police Training Academy. Its contents were destroyed while the badly burned steel building remained standing. A number of lumber and mulch piles on the property, as well as a front end loader, also were destroyed.

The State Fire Marshall’s Office is investigating the fire, which Bolger said is not considered suspicious at this point.

It was not the first fire to ravage the sawmill, which has been in continuous operation for 36 years, according to The Journal's archives.

In August 1999, a fire in the mill’s main structure caused nearly $80,000 in damage; at the time, the company was not insured, according to the police. While firefighters saved the steel mill building, most of the equipment inside was destroyed.

-- Journal staff writer Philip Marcelo

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 4:55 PM | Permalink

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