Cheese factory fire devastates community
Sunday, February 3, 2013
by SUSAN MANN
Dairy Farmers of Ontario has pledged assistance to St.-Albert Cheese Co-operative Inc. after its manufacturing facility in the village of St. Albert was destroyed by fire Sunday.
DFO communications director Graham Lloyd said by email the organization “will work closely with them to facilitate getting their product to market. Other processors have faced similar circumstances and, as was the case with them, we will assist wherever possible.”
Francois St. Amour, Mayor of The Nation Municipality, says the co-op is the major employer in the St. Albert area employing 120 people. The Nation Municipality, located in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell in Eastern Ontario, has 11,000 people in its 661-square-kilometre area. The municipality is an amalgamation of several smaller communities, including St. Albert.
“It’s a tough shot for the local economy,” St. Amour said late Sunday afternoon. The warehouse was said to contain $3 million worth of cheese inventory and it’s still standing but it’s “most probably a goner too,” he said. St. Amour said he didn’t know the size of the factory.
As for what the factory’s loss means to the community, St. Amour’s first thought was about the farmers who supplied the factory. “What do we do tomorrow with the milk?”
His next thought was the company’s famous products, including the curds, and where retailers would source them. “Do you know how popular that cheese is?”
Founded in 1894, St. Albert cheese is owned by 50 farmers, it said on the co-op’s website. “Five generations of farmers and craftsmen have worked to maintain St. Albert’s long tradition of quality-aged cheddar, mild cheddar and our famous curds,” the website said. The products are available in many regions of Ontario and Quebec.
Some parts of the factory were old while there has been a $50 million investment in the past two years for an addition, he said, adding “they had just started operating at full tilt about two weeks ago.” The fire started in the older part of the factory where the retail store was located, he noted. It was still smoking about 5 p.m. Sunday when St. Amour spoke with Better Farming by phone.
St. Amour said the first fire call came in at 9:42 a.m. Sunday and volunteer firefighters from nine different departments were called to the blaze, including ones from surrounding communities Embrun, Limoges, Rockland, Casselman and St. Isidore. There were three pumpers and eight water shuttle trucks at the blaze, St. Amour said. Firefighters had to get water from the Village of Casselman and from the Nation River. Seventy-five to 100 firefighters were needed to fight it.
There were workers in the factory at the time the fire started but everyone escaped and there were no injuries, he said. “From what I hear they did smell smoke; they smelled something and they started looking around but couldn’t find anything,” he said. “Then the alarm started and that got everybody out. It was a slow start to it.”
Smoke from the blaze was visible as far as 15 kilometres away. “I live in the Village of Fournier and when I got on the Highway 417 coming here (to St. Albert) I wasn’t even close to Casselman and I could see the smoke,” he said. He had been notified about the fire though text messages and was also sent pictures. “I knew it was bad.”
St. Amour said the cause and the amount of damage isn’t known yet. The Ontario Fire Marshall’s Office has been called but so far the fire hasn’t been determined to be suspicious, he said. “I cannot speak to that.”
The Nation Municipality has offered its offices, phone lines and Internet access along with the St. Albert community hall to company officials for them to use, St. Amour said. “We want to get them up and going as fast as possible.”
Five or six houses surrounding the factory on St. Paul Road had to be evacuated. Those residents hadn’t returned to their homes by 5 p.m. Sunday, he said. The community centre was opened and cots and blankets were available.
The Russell Ontario Provincial Police, Fire Chief Aurele Constantineau, and the Ontario Fire Marshall’s Office couldn’t be reached for comment. BF