Rosslands oldest business suffers weekend fire
By Andrew Zwicker
Late last Friday night and into early Saturday morning, one of Rossland’s oldest continually operating businesses suffered a fire on its property. Paterson Pole ltd.–better known as the old Jones sawmill–had its planer room burn to the ground in the event. Terry Martin, the regional district’s fire chief, was the first to arrive on scene at 11:30 PM. At that time the fire was already significantly advanced and hopes of saving the structure were close to nil.
“The roof was already caved in on the building and the sides were beginning to cave in. It was that fast of a fire,” explained Martin. Fire crews from Rossland, Warfield, Trail and Montrose responded with one pumper truck feeding four hand lines and three water tender trucks delivering water. With no fire hydrant on site, the nearest hydrant access was at the corner of Highway 22 and the Old Cascade Highway. Three water tenders spent the night driving back and forth shuttling water down the hill to the pumper. “This is what happens in rural firefighting. You’ve got to get creative and you’ve got to do those things. That’s why we have those water tenders,” added Martin. “It was steady with those guys back and forth and they kept us supplied with water to keep fighting the fire.” As soon as Fortis was contacted and able to shut off power to the site, crews were able to begin attacking the difficult fire, working through the heavily damaged site. With the main building all but lost, the goal became one of keeping the fire from spreading as well as saving cut, stocked and ready-to-ship material adjacent to the fire site. “It took the better part of the night to put it out completely,” added Martin. “There was so much damage to the structure and the building that it was hard to attack the fire [given the] piles and piles of debris. We were working on and underneath debris. It was a lot of work but the fellas did a great job.” As the sun rose the fire was fully extinguished and fire crews left the scene by 8:00 AM Saturday morning. The owners of the sawmill are not commenting to the media; however, the chief noted that they are cooperating with the fire service on the investigation as to the cause of the fire. At this stage no suspicious activity is suspected. There was welding activity taking place in the planer building Friday afternoon and, although not confirmed, it is suspected by the owner (as relayed through the fire chief) that this may have been the cause. “We can’t pinpoint that it was the welding activity that ignited the fire, but investigations are pointing in that direction,” noted Martin. “It’s currently still under investigation and the owner is working with us to pinpoint the cause. It’s unfortunate, but the good news is no one was hurt, no employees were hurt and no firefighters were hurt.” The sawmill operation, although not technically in Rossland city limits any more, may be one of the longest continually operating businesses in town. Originally opened as Jones Ties and Poles in 1939 by Russell Jones, the sawmill originally was located out the Maldy Creek Road. In 1959 the operation moved to its present site in Patterson. At that time the mill’s site was an old Doukhobor homestead. Local resident Tom Jones grew up on the present day sawmill site run by his family for nearly four decades before being sold in the 1970s. “At that time the site was very pastoral and quite beautiful. It was really a great place to grow up. There were nice meadows, fields and the creek was full of trout,” explained Jones. Early this week the mill was back in action with staff on site beginning the clean-up work. As they sifted through the charred wreckage and, their unofficial record of longest-running business in town remained intact.
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