2 Terrace Review: — Wednesday. August 21, 1991

__ Gas pipe break

_A spectacular blaze in the 4600
vlock Hamer at 12:03 p.m. Mon-
day sent a column of black smoke
‘into the sky that attracted a size-
able crowd and created what could
almost be described as a traffic
jam on Kalum St. The Terrace Fire

Department responded _ quickly, |

however, and although a storage

shed, boat and camper were

destroyed, the quick response
probably saved residential homes.

Terrace fire chief. Bob Beckett
said relief valves in two partially

Westar lays off 120
sawmill workers

Low lumber prices are being
blamed for the indefinite shutdown
of the Westar sawmills in Hazelton
and Kitwanga. The closure has put

‘more than 300 people out of work.

Westar spokesman Reg Thutl-
bom said last week the company
decided not to continue the two
operations in view of dismal mar-
ket conditions. Thurlborn said a
secondary factor in the decision to

_ shut down is an impending main-
- teriance shutdown at the Skeena
Cellulose pulp mill near Prince
Rupert, the operation that buys
most of the wood chips produced
by the two Westar sawmills. Thurl-
born said they have no room at
either mill to stockpile the chips
during the SCI shutdown, expected
to last two weeks.

Thurlborn said Westar has a few
lumber orders left to fill, but those
can easily be made up with exist-
ing inventory. .

Although the company has set
Sept. 16 as a tentative date for
resuming operations, -Thurlborn
said that in fact he has no idea
how long the shut down may last.

The two mills and Westar’s tenure

are currently for sale, a factor that
complicates the situation, he
added.

Deadline

As of press time yesterday, the
labour situation at Canada Post
was uncertain. If an agreement
isn’t reached between Canada Post
and the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers (CUPW) by 12:01 a.m.
Saturday there could be either a
lockout or a strike. According to
Kate English, president of CUPW
Local 836 in Terrace, that’s the
deadline on a conciliation report
which contained no recommenda-
tions.

English says negotiations are
very intense at the present time

Layoffs were given to 120 hourly
workers in the sawmills, and
Thurlborn assumes that about 180
people employed by logging com-
panies under contract to Westar
will also be laid off. The shut
down will also put 10 people out
of work at the whole log chipping
operation under contract to Westar
in Hazelton, he said.

Westar Group put its entire tim-
ber division up for sale in July.
The assets include sawmills in the
central and southern interior as
well as the two Northwest mills.
Bob Chase, senior vice president
of finance for Westar Group, said
last week the sale is in the "duc
diligence” stage, with prospective
purchasers examining the oper-
ations in detail. "Right now we’re

irying to stick-handle our way

through this thing," Chase said.
"Everybody has their own idea of
what they want out of it." Native
groups in the Kitwanga area are
still interested in taking over that
operation, he said, but there is a
fundamental problem in log supply
if that mill is taken in isolation.

"We think it can be a win-win
situation, but people have to be
realistic about the fibre supply," he
said,

filled 20-pound propane tanks

" stored in the shed worked properly,

and although the small amount of
propane added to the flame there
was no explosion.

A propane tank, stored in the
‘nearby camper was safely removed
from the scene. The camper, which
belonged to one of the two home
owners, was gutted and the roof
burned off. There was minor heat
damage to the rear of the older
model pickup truck the camper
was sitting on.

The fibreglass runabout boat,
which was being stored by the
same home owner for a friend,

also caught fire and about 30 per--

cent of the hull was consumed by
flames. As for the two homes only
a few feet from the blaze, Beckett
says, there was only minor damage
to the gable ends.

Terrace firefighters responded to
a second call at the Terrace Inn at
about 4:20 p.m. Monday. An
employee apparently smelled
smoke, but no fire was found and
an over-heated electrical motor in

the venting system was blamed. |

One hotel guest forced to flee the
building seemed delighted: the

_gentleman from Holland told the

Terrace Review with a smile that
he had just checked in when the

alarm went off. He grabbed his
camera as he left his room to
record the action for friends at

‘home,

The only other fire call received
in the area during the past week

also came into the Terrace depart-
ment. A blaze at the Uplands Store .

on Halliwell Ave. reported at 3:18
a.m. last ‘Thursday caused minor
damage to the building and some
damage to equipment stored out-
doors. It is believed the fire was
deliberately set, and an RCMP
investigation continues.

looms in postal talks

and for this reason numbers and
benefits sometimes change hourly.
Basic CUPW demands, however,
call for a wage increase to bring

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them in line with workers in simi-
lar types of employment, basic job
security, and the protection of
worker’s rights.

G1M7

shuts down major
industrial users

A 60-foot rupture in a Pacific
Northern Gas pipeline caused a 14-
hour interruption in service Sunday
to about 60 Copperside Estate
homes and four major Northwest
industries. PNG manager Wayne
Epp says the rupture, which
occurred 10.5 kilometres up the
Copper River Valley, was reported
to them by the RCMP early Sun-

day morning and an in-line valve

was used to shut the line down at
about 6:30 a.m.

The shutdown affected Ocelot
Industries, Alcan and Eurocan in
Kitimat and the Skeena Cellulose
pulp mill in Prince Rupert.

Epp says the pipeline was appar-
ently weakened when it was slight-
ly damaged by a backhoe working
on a routine upgrade project late
last week. He says about 20 feet of

the three-foot-deep underground
line was bared, and when work
came to a halt for the weekend,
pressure in the line was increased
from 80 to 100 percent. The com-
bination of the damage and
increased pressure caused the
rupture. He explains that gas pipe-
lines are usually reduced to 80
percent normal pressure when
being worked on for safety tea-
sons.

The amount of methane spilled
as a result of the rupture is
unknown, says Epp, but gas did
escape for about an hour. He adds,
however, there are no environ- -
mental concems because the meth-
ane was dissipated into the atmos-
phere as a vapour. Epp says full
service was restored to all cus-
tomers by about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

[nnd
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