Klamath Falls, Ore. – Fire fighters were called out to a fire early Monday morning at the Collins Products lumber mill in Klamath Falls.
Fire crews from Keno, Klamath Falls, and Kingsley Field responded to a fire at Collins Products on Highway 66 shortly after 8 Monday morning.
Keno Fire Protection District Chief John Ketchum explains: “The fire is involved in an environmental system that scrubs emissions from the plant.”
Crews had the fire contained late Monday morning, and were working to fully extinguish it.
“It’s in a large tank.” Ketchum notes. “About a 250,000 gallon tank that has water on the bottom section of it, and material that’s used to absorb the emissions and scrub that in the top part of it.”
There were no injuries as a result of the fire, no dollar estimate of damage has been made.
Company officials say the fire is likely to cause some downtime at the hardboard siding plant.
The particle board section was not impacted.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
KOTI-TV NBC2 reporter Lyle Ahrens moved from Nebraska to Klamath Falls in the late 1970’s. He instantly fell in love with the mountains, the trees and the rivers, and never once regretted the move.Lyle’s job history is quite colorful.
He’s managed a pizza parlor; he’s been a bartender, and a “kiwifruit grader” at an organic orchard in New Zealand. A Klamath Falls radio station hired Lyle in the mid 90’s as a news writer and commercial producer. In 2004, Lyle joined the KOTI/KOBI news operation.Lyle notes with pride that he has a big responsibility presenting the Klamath Basin to a wide and varied audience.
“The on-going water crisis has underscored the fact that the people and the issues in the Klamath Basin are every bit as diverse as the terrain. Winning and keeping the trust of the viewers, as well as the newsmakers, is something I strive for with each story”.
When he’s not busy reporting the news, Lyle enjoys astronomy, playing guitar, fixing old radios and listening to anything by Sheryl Crow.
