Police: No injuries reported at Androscoggin Mill explosion in Jay
This story will be updated.
A large explosion occurred Wednesday afternoon at the Androscoggin Mill in Jay, causing debris from the mill to rain down on nearby roads.
No casualties or injuries have been reported, according to Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Stephen McCausland.
“We’re hearing from the mill that all employees and contractors are accounted for and that there are no injuries,” McCausland said.
Fire officials are currently working on a strategy to address the aftermath of the explosion. McCausland said a chemical element was involved either during the explosion, or in its aftermath, though he did not know where inside the mill the explosion occurred.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal as well as numerous local fire departments responded to the scene. Lifeflight was also in route, according to Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols.
Officials have not said what may have caused the explosion. A press conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Jay Police Department, where fire officials will be providing an update on the incident.
Gov. Janet Mills said that her office is closely monitoring the incident.
“I urge Maine people to stay far away from the scene, to stay safe and to allow first responders to work as quickly as they can. I ask the people of Maine to join me in praying for the safety and wellbeing of all those in and around this historic mill,” Mills said in a statement.
Around noon, plumes of dark grey smoke shot into the blue sky high above the mill, according to photos and video of the incident that eyewitnesses posted on Facebook. The smoke was visible across the Androscoggin River, which runs next to the mill. Debris that looked like wood shavings or pulp was falling from the sky, landing on the windshields of trucks that were parked outside of the mill waiting to deliver wood.
Local resident Rebecca Burhoe was driving home on Route 140 across from the mill when she heard the explosion, which she said sounded like a bonfire taking off.
“Out of the corner of my eye I just saw this big huge plume of smoke,” Burhoe said.
Typically, the stacks from the mill are visible from where Burhoe was driving, but the cloud of smoke consumed the area and no part of the mill could be seen, she said.
Burhoe’s husband, a truck driver who hauls wood, was on his way to the mill when the explosion occurred, she said.
A mill representative had no comment.
The Androscoggin mill employs about 500 people.
Pixelle Specialty Solutions, a specialty paper producer based in Pennsylvania, completed its purchase of the mill this February from Verso Corp. The Jay mill and another Verso mill in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, were sold for $400 million.
Last August Verso executives said they would invest a total of $120 million in three of their pulp and paper mills, including the Androscoggin Mill, though they did not specify how much money would go toward the Jay upgrades. The goal was to reduce Verso’s heavy reliance on graphic paper and place more emphasis on specialty papers.
But Verso’s fortunes waned, and the two mills were on the sales block only three months after the investment was announced.
The company had struggled for years with the global decline in demand for coated paper.
Before the sale to Pixelle, the troubled mill had restarted its No. 3 paper line in 2018 after shutting it in 2017 and idling 120 workers.
In early 2015 Verso borrowed heavily to acquire its larger competitor NewPage. Eight months later, Verso announced it would lay off 300 employees in Jay and shut down its No. 1 pulp dryer and No. 2 paper machine, bringing the total headcount to about 565. In early 2016, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and exited it later that summer.
BDN writer Lori Valigra contributed to this report.