Explosion in Jay Maine

[ckf]

Looks like the paper mill went boom. 

 

[ckf]

PS turn on your speakers to here the Mainers talk.

[Kivalo]

Damn, I hope that no people were in that part of the mill. 

[ckf]

Just now, Kivalo said:

Damn, I hope that no people were in that part of the mill. 

Im guessing that there must be fatalities. From what I could here it blew the smoke stack to pieces 

[Rigid1]

Wow, thats crazy

[Kivalo]

9 minutes ago, ckf said:

Im guessing that there must be fatalities. From what I could here it blew the smoke stack to pieces 

yeah I heard that, too. Sad.

[Angry ginger]

Crazy-  can't see that there is any way there no fatalities,  it would have had to flash to blow that strong and spit debris that distance.  

 

[Angry ginger]

apparently they are having to try to dup water from helicopters.   Coworker just showed me a pic of some pickups that were smashed from the debris being blown out.  big iron pipe.  Her sister lives up that way

[ckf]

8 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

apparently they are having to try to dup water from helicopters.   Coworker just showed me a pic of some pickups that were smashed from the debris being blown out.  big iron pipe.  Her sister lives up that way

I've driven by it a number of times. I'm kind of surprised that they were still open.  As you know,  the plants in northern NH are gone. 

[ARTIE KATZ]

8 Minutes ago said all employees safe.  Miracle!

 

https://www.wmtw.com/article/crews-respond-to-explosion-at-jay-paper-mill/32159402

Edited April 15, 2020 by ARTIE KATZ

[Big Crappie]

https://www.sunjournal.com/2020/04/15/explosion-reported-at-paper-mill-in-jay/

[Rigid1]

6 minutes ago, ARTIE KATZ said:

8 Minutes ago said all employees safe.  Miracle!

 

https://www.wmtw.com/article/crews-respond-to-explosion-at-jay-paper-mill/32159402

Amazing!! good news!

[Mainecat]

Good news! I did business with that mill for many years and knew employees there. Looks like the pulp cooker blew.

500 employees work there and hundreds of local truckers and loggers that  feed that mill will be effected. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Mainecat

[Jimmy Snacks]

Damn that is awful and yeah those Maine accents are something else. 

[AKIQPilot]

Wow. Amazing no one was hurt or killed.  Unfortunately that place is likely done. 

[Shifty]

1 hour ago, ckf said:

I've driven by it a number of times. I'm kind of surprised that they were still open.  As you know,  the plants in northern NH are gone. 

Crazy video.  There is one mill still making paper in Berlin.  The lower mill on cascade flats. Have you ever been to Mary’s pizza Across from the mill? 

[ckf]

26 minutes ago, Shifty said:

Crazy video.  There is one mill still making paper in Berlin.  The lower mill on cascade flats. Have you ever been to Mary’s pizza Across from the mill? 

Yes, I have been to Mary's. My mother was from Berlin. I spent a lot of time at my grandparents in Berlin during the summer when  i was a kid.  It used to STINK back then,   lol

[Mainecat]

19 minutes ago, ckf said:

Yes, I have been to Mary's. My mother was from Berlin. I spent a lot of time at my grandparents in Berlin during the summer when  i was a kid.  It used to STINK back then,   lol

The locals in Jay told me years ago it was the smell of money.

[Kivalo]

Thats great news no fatalities.

[Matt]

Figured the second I heard about this it had to be a digester.  Those digesters mean business.  My college job was working with the digesters at the Thilmany mill in Kaukauna WI (the stinky one).  Four towering pressure cookers each 5 stories tall operating entirely on compressed steam and caustic "liquor."  We had a blockage on the intake side once where the chips would dump in.  The cook (name for the crew foreman) had an idea that he could turn off the safety interlocks and clear the blockage by inducing a few PSI of steam.  Blew the damn hood right off the intake chute and filled a 7 story building with steam which turned to scalding condensation falling from every metal surface.

Of course he lied about what happened, and our crew was given the "safety award" because we kept everyone inside the control room while it happened.  Thank God there weren't any millwrights tooling around the digester building at the time.  That's the good thing I suppose.  This was back in 1998 and things were already 100% computer automated at that point.

Edited April 15, 2020 by Matt

[snowstorm]

that mill just got sold. its now pixtel was verso and when it was really going strong it was the ip. i hauled wood in there for years. pixtel is just another investment group just like verso they also bought the stevens point mill in wi

[Matt]

and yep, from watching the video, that's exactly what half-digested chips look like.  I wonder if this happened during a blow gone bad.  After a cook cycle is completed, a valve on the bottom of the digester is opened while high pressure steam is pumped into the vessel.  The steam forces the "cooked" chips out of the opening, through high pressure lines, to a "blow tank" where the chips are smashed against a target at high velocity, turning them into pulp.

At our mill, there was a siren that would sound 1 minute prior to a blow and during a blow, people were supposed to stay out of the digester building.  A ruptured blow line could be deadly.  This looks more like a blow line got plugged and the steam blew the whole digester apart.  Yikes!

Edited April 15, 2020 by Matt

[snowstorm]

both digesters are junk now

[Matt]

1 minute ago, snowstorm said:

both digesters are junk now

for sure.  That whole building will be a total loss at this point.

[ckf]

24 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

The locals in Jay told me years ago it was the smell of money.

After about a week you get used to it