Glendale mill may absorb workers displaced by fire

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, July 19, 2014

GLENDALE Ñ Swanson Group President Steve Swanson headed to Springfield Friday to witness the destruction of one of the family’s mills.

The Springfield Plywood and Veneer mill, with 250 employees, was 95 percent destroyed when a veneer dryer caught fire Thursday, Swanson said.

“It’s a tough day. It’s going to take some time to assess the situation,” said Swanson, whose family also operates a plywood mill and sawmill in Glendale and a sawmill in Roseburg. “It’s a blow, but it’s not a fatal blow. We’ll recover and do the best we can.

“I think we’ll try to absorb as many employees as possible at the Glendale mill, and expand the operation there,” he added. “That’s not cast in stone, but that’s one of our thoughts.”

Glendale’s two mills employ about 350 people. All four combined, including the Springfield and Roseburg mills, had 830 employees.

In 2001 the company office in Glendale was destroyed in an arson fire. Members of the radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front were later convicted.

“That was just the office. That was a minor issue compared to this,” Swanson said. “There’s a lot of people out of work. My heart goes out to all those people. We really haven’t had a chance to have a conversation with the employees yet.”

He said it was likely the company would rebuild at the same location in Springfield, but not for sure.

According to The Register-Guard newspaper in Eugene, the fire started in a veneer dryer and quickly spread to the rest of the large facility on the southeast side of Springfield.

Multiple explosions were seen and heard. Dewayne Hunter, 40, a forklift driver at the mill, told the newspaper he was in the finish yard when a large dryer caught fire and ignited debris in the air.

“The fire was, like, right there in my face,” he said.

Melody Fairbanks has worked at the mill for 20 years. “This is the worst possible thing that could happen to me,” she said.

Swanson, which has operated in Glendale for over two decades, previously as Superior, bought the Springfield plywood mill in 2007 from McKenzie Forest Products.

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Reach reporter Jeff Duewel at 541-474-3720 or jduewel@thedailycourier.com