‘We’re tough. We’re to get through this’

“This is the main business in the community. It’s going to put a lot of people out of a job,” he said while at the scene the next morning. "We’re tough. We’re going to get through this.”

As people in the community listened to an endless stream of sirens from late evening on Tuesday, July 13, to early morning on Wednesday, July 14 – and saw the smoke and flame billowing from the scene – they feared the worst as they prayed for those battling the blaze.

While not everything was completely destroyed, immediately following the fire it was too soon to know what the short-term and long-term future will hold.

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE

“Short of it being completely flattened, it’s pretty well as bad as it’s going to be,” said general manager Jamie Lewis – one of generations of the Lewis family who have been involved with the family-run company, which has a history dating back to the 1950s.

At the time of the blaze, the cause of the fire was unknown.

There were employees on evening shift when the fire started. Everyone got out safely, he said.

And while there were some cases of heat exhaustion amongst firefighters, there were no other injuries reported.

Lewis Mouldings has a lengthy and varied list of products, which range from mouldings and millwork, to pine lumber and cut stock, to Fibre Fuel – an alternative to traditional firewood; along with other products.