Fire Strikes Riverbend Timber Framing

The cool October late-night quiet of Blissfield was pierced by wailing sirens Friday as fire trucks, police and ambulances raced to a blaze at one of the village's best-known industrial companies.

Smoke billowed from the northeast end of Riverbend Timberframing building on Sherman Street in Blissfield, from around midnight into the early hours Saturday morning.

The Blissfield Township Fire Department got the call from dispatch at 11:54 p.m. and was on the scene shortly after midnight.

“When we arrived, black smoke and flames were coming out of the northeast corner of the building,” said Assistant Chief Paul Young.

Flames broke through holes at the rear of the main structure as Blissfield Township firefighters, assisted by other Riga, Palmyra and Madison, with its ladder truck, kept water on the structure and knocked it down in about 90 minutes, Young said. The firefighters cleared the scene at 4 a.m.

There were no reported injuries.

Young and members of the fire department investigated the scene over the weekend with an insurance investigator and then again with the state police fire marshall Monday.

“We know where the fire started. We’re just not sure what caused the fire and I’m not certain we’ll ever have the answer to that question,” Young said. “But I can say that it is not suspicious in nature, at all.”

The fire began in the northeast corner of the Riverbend Timber Framing plant, in an area of the plant were people arrive to collect sawdust.

“We were told by both the insurance investigator and the state police investigator that the four departments did a good job to put the fire out and minimize damage,” Young said. “We worked well together with the other departments. It was a job well done, and I want to publicly thank the other departments for their assistance.”

Riverbend Timber Framing’s corporate parent, PFB Corporation, of Alberta, reported that the plant was not operating at the time of the fire.

“The property was fully insured and representatives from the company’s insurers are on-site coordinating clean up activities and making the site safe. It is important to note that the adjacent Insulspan SIPS Plant was unaffected by the fire except for some minor electrical disruptions which were fully restored during the weekend. Accordingly, the Insulspan SIPS plant resumed normal operations this morning at its regularly scheduled start-up time,” wrote Steven Hardy, VP of PFB Corporation. “Management and staff at the Blissfield manufacturing site have worked tirelessly and relentlessly across the weekend doing whatever tasks necessary to speed up the process of restarting operations. Contingency arrangements are underway to resume timber framing operations as soon as it is both practical and safe. Alternative building space located a short distance from the plant has been secured which will allow certain timber framing operations to resume immediately. Critical equipment used for processing timbers was located in the section of building away from the main fire and that equipment is currently being cleaned, inspected and assessed to determine its fitness for use. Early indications are that the equipment is not severely damaged.”

Amy Campbell, a marketing and Rep Support Manager with Riverbend, expressed her gratitude to the local firefighters and to the well-wishers who called to offer support.

At one point, three breakthrough fires making points of a triangle on the south side of the building looked eerily like an angry jack-o-lantern glaring through the towers of smoke.

At about 1:10 a.m., the firefighters who had been battling the blaze from above on the aerial unit were brought down, but water continued to be poured on the structure, with hoses aimed at any flames that would break out.

Police units and ambulances were also on the scene, along with Consumers Powers trucks and plant personnel. Hoses stretched down Jipson Stret and around the corner onto Sherman Street.

As smoke rolled away from town toward the east, townspeople watched from neighboring parking lots and the streets as the firefighters worked to get the blaze under control at the company whose structural insulated panels have been featured on numerous television shows and in magazine and news articles worldwide.