Prince George, B.C. –  For the second time in four months, Pacific BioEnergy has had to deal with a fire.

The scenario sounded very familiar, a fire in a dryer, but unlike the flames which destroyed the North Central Plywood plant,  the fire was quickly extinguished at the new Pacific BioEnergy plant.

“Anytime you have a process of removing moisture from a source of fibre, there is a possibility of fire” says company spokesman Kevin Brown “In this instance, staff were able to put out the flames , and as part of their emergency response training, called 9-1-1” The Pacific BioEneergy plant is less than a year old and at the end of March had a massive blast and a fire.

The fire started Sunday morning around 9 and by noon hour, all had been cleaned up.

 Brown says such fires are not uncommon  at new facilities which deal with fibre “ It has been my experience in dealing with the woods products industry that when large facilities are starting up there is a possibility of fires, the vast majority of which are very small and which are put out quickly”.

At the recent  BioEnergy conference in Prince George,  one of the sessions was dedicated to the safe handling of the volatile fibre as this source of bio energy starts to decay, there is a natural heat created which can cause fires. “That is why at pulp mills, you often see machinery turning over the pile of chips in an effort to cool the fibre” says Brown.

Yesterday’s fire at the plant did not result in any injuries, and the plant was back to full operations by the afternoon.