Water flows across Highway 97 north of Bear Lake. Submitted photo

Prince George, B.C. – The night shift at Canfor’s Polar Sawmill Division at Bear Lake has been cancelled due to a lack of water.

And it appears the problem is a shortage of water for fire suppression after the fire pond burst earlier this afternoon.  The reason for the break, amount of water in the pond, the timeline for repairs, number of shifts that will be lost until repairs have been made all are not known at this time as all of our calls to the company this afternoon have gone to voicemail.

In a subsequent email to 250 News a spokesperson for Canfor says “today there was a small breach of the dyke adjacent to our site that supplies water to our fire pond, impacting our stored water supply.”  Corinne Stavness, Director of External Affairs and Communications with Canfor continues “We cannot operate without adequate fire protection capacity and we have cancelled the night shift while we assess the situation.  The discharge from the dyke is pure rainwater and poses no risk to the public.”

A truck driver who was in the vicinity took the photo above, about two kilometers north of Bear Lake,  just after 4pm.  He said YRB was at the location on Highway 97 observing the flow of water across the highway.