Dry kilns remain offline at Tolko’s Soda Creek Division in Williams Lake and Quest Wood in Quesnel following Tuesday’s natural gas pipeline explosion near Prince George.
Solid Wood vice president, Troy Connolly said in a news release because the operations rely on natural gas for part of their production processes, the dry kilns are offline until further notice.
Both locations are still running, however, as neither the sawmill nor planer rely on natural gas.
Operations at Tolko’s Heffley Creek plywood operation north of Kamloops meanwhile has been shut down as it relies on natural gas for all of its production processes.
“Right now, these are the only operations affected by the explosion; however, we will maintain regular contact with Fortis BC and monitor the situation to see if any others will be impacted,” Connolly said.
Fortis BC said Friday that some of their industrial customers have had natural gas service curtailed until further notice.
“On Thursday some industrial customers began being brought back onto the system with a reduced amount of natural gas. This process will continue through the weekend,” it said in an update.
“Until the situation is resolved we are asking all our customers to continue avoiding non-essential use of natural gas.”
RCMP say there are no indications that the explosion was criminal in nature.