Kenora Forest Products staff members are back at work after a massive fire roared through two kilns on the last weekend of 2017.

Firefighters and volunteers were called to the lumber company just after midnight on Saturday, Dec. 30 to find two drying kilns engulfed in flames. Luckily no one was hurt as the mill was closed at the time of the fire.

On Jan. 2, mill manager Glen Hansson said all employees were at work as they dried lumber with one kiln and tried to determine what to do with the excess wood. He said they’d look into finding different business strategies to selling lumber in a green state as opposed to a kiln-dried state. “We’ll look at that first and then we’ll look at [if] there’s air drying options for our lumber and things like that,” Hansson said.

The estimated damage is about $850,000 and Hansson said it could take up to 12 months to replace the two kilns. He said there are currently no layoffs planned for the 100 employees.

(Source: CBC News)