Yeah, it really bites, and I hope they will rebuild it and continue to operate. Unlike a lot of people, we stayed away from there -- I know better than to add to the congestion just to get a better look. So I haven't seen it yet but the pictures look pretty bad. It started about 10:30am and put up an awful lot of smoke. They had air tankers & helicopters on it very quickly and by noon it was just putting out a whitish smoke and was winding down. Fire did not spread to nearby buildings, log decks, or stacks of finished lumber (whew!).

That mill has done their best to remain open through tough times, and remains the only big employer around here (130 people, per the article). It would be easy for them to ship out the lumber and send the logs to other mills. I really do hope they rebuild it...  this town would never be the same without the mill.