Crews battle 4-alarm blaze at at Northland Forest Products lumber distributor in Kingston
Damages estimated to be millions of dollars, police say
UPDATED 9:02 PM EDT Aug 06, 2016
Firefighters from multiple departments are on the scene of a four-alarm fire in Kingston.
The fire broke out early Saturday morning at Northland Forest Products on Depot Road, a business that processes lumber shipments from across the country, officials said.
"Luckily, no one was inside any of the buildings," said Graham Pellerin, Kingston Fire Cheif.
Furnished by Lisa J. Fales
Two buildings are involved and police estimate that millions of dollars worth of damage has been done, but the owner said that most of their inventory was saved.
"The most important thing is that no one was hurt," said Jameson French, President of Northland Forest Products. "The fire departments have done a great job to save the buildings that they could save and we're grateful for that."
Furnished by Jason Gaudette
Officials are unclear what sparked the fire, but expect crews to be on scene all day.
Furnished by Lisa J. Fales
One firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion.
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August 6, 2016
To our Valued customers, suppliers and friends,
Early Saturday morning, a major fire did serious damage to our Kingston , NH lumberyard. We lost our pre-dryer, thermal modification oven, secondary inspection line, stacker, 3 forklifts and countless pieces of equipment and tools.With the valiant efforts of the Kingston, NH and neighboring Fire Departments it appears our boiler and Kilns have been saved and no one was seriously injured.
With much hard work ahead of us we look to the future, knowing that we will emerge from this a stronger company. Although our loss is great, we have our most valuable resource, our employees. With their strong work ethic and determination, we will work to meet our customer’s needs, remain a valuable source and purchaser of hardwood lumber and continue to be a great place to work.
Ninety percent of our inventory is intact, we hope to have our kilns back online soon, and our primary inspection line should be running early this week. The lumberyard will be open as usual on Monday morning, shipping orders and starting the cleanup.
We would like to thank everyone for their kind words, prayers, and offers of help. As we sort through this we will undoubtedly have need for all of them.
Thanking you all in advance,
Jamey French, Matt Gilchrist and all the team at NFP
