Columbia Falls firefighters respond to sawdust fire at MDF plant

Columbia Falls firefighters put out a sawdust fire at the Weyerhaeuser MDF plant Saturday morning about 5:13 a.m.

The fire was unrelated to an explosion that happened at the plant earlier this week, fire chief Karl Weeks said.

Firefighters were off the scene by 7:05 a.m.

The fire was located in a storage building and appeared to be caused by a problem in a conveyor belt, Weeks said. 

The building itself did not catch on fire. Evergreen, Whitefish and Bad Rock departments responded with mutual aid.

On Wednesday the plant suffered an explosion at its power distribution center, which was likely caused by an electrical arc. No one was injured in the blast, but it took firefighters several hours to put it out and they were called back on Friday to put out a hot spot in a wall.