Lawsuit filed against Weed lumber company over possible role in deadly Mill Fire
A Weed homeowner is suing Roseburg Forest Products Co. over the deadly Mill Fire, blaming the lumber mill’s practice of storing smoldering ash from a biomass plant in a warehouse that went up in flames.
The Hammond family, whose home was damaged by the fire, sued Roseburg in Sacramento Superior Court days after the company acknowledged that it’s investigating whether a malfunctioning sprinkler system played a role in starting the fire.
Multiple city officials and residents say the wildfire, which began Sept. 2, started in Roseburg’s warehouse before spreading to the historically Black neighborhood of Lincoln Heights. The fire wiped out multiple homes in Lincoln Heights and killed two people.
The fire had burned 3,935 acres and was 80% contained Friday, according to Cal Fire. At least 118 homes and other buildings were destroyed.
For more than a decade Roseburg has operated a co-generation plant that turns unused wood into electricity. On Wednesday the company acknowledged that it stored hot ash from the biomass plant in a concrete bin inside Shed 17, a massive wooden warehouse that caught fire.
The company said a sprinkler system, supplied by a third-party vendor, was supposed to keep the ash cool and wet. Roseburg wouldn’t identify the vendor but said it’s investigating whether the system wasn’t working properly.
Five current and former employees, and a retired firefighter, have told The Sacramento Bee that they occasionally saw fires in the warehouse over the years that were apparently started by the ash. Roseburg’s lawyer, Robert Julian, said he had no information that any fires had ever started in the warehouse before the day of the Mill Fire.
The Hammonds’ lawsuit says Roseburg “failed to handle, cool, control and maintain this waste ash and the hot ash ignited the Mill Fire.” It adds that Roseburg knew “of a high risk of an uncontrollable fire” in the warehouse.
Pete Hillan, a spokesman for the company, said Roseburg hadn’t yet seen the lawsuit and would have no comment.