RUMFORD – A union boss blasted paper mill officials for faulty fire alarms and warned of ice buildup on other buildings like the one that collapsed and burned Tuesday.

Gary Hemingway, president of the Paper Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union Local 900, said a quick response from 100 firefighters from nine towns isolated the fire in one area, preventing it from affecting capital equipment and a machine shop.

The building housed maintenance offices and storage areas.

“I’m very grateful for the great response” Hemingway said Tuesday evening. “They were very lucky today that the fire didn’t get into the machine shop and pulp dryers.”

But he was upset about improperly working fire alarms and intercoms, and alleged inactions by mill management that reportedly created the problem in the first place.

“Some of the fire alarms didn’t work. People in some areas could hear the evacuation alarms, but the alarm didn’t cover all of the places it should have. So they need to learn from it and address it so it doesn’t happen again,” Hemingway said.

Mill spokesman Steve Hudson said that initially a mill-wide alarm was sounded, but shut off once officials realized that employees were already evacuating areas that could be affected by smoke.

But Hemingway said different alarm tones came across the intercom system along with a pre-recorded voice message, telling employees to go to designated evacuation areas. However, he said, the voice was garbled in some areas.

“It wasn’t working as well as it needs to be,” he said.

Hemingway also expressed concerns about other ice accumulations atop roofs in the complex.

“There’s one in the co-gen area, and there are ice buildups in other places of the mill. And I hope that it gets taken care of before we have a problem with it. Because of the severe weather we’ve had, this is how we get to these problems,” Hemingway said.

More than 300 employees were evacuated to the mill’s administration buildings on Rumford’s island, and to the American Legion due to concerns about smoke exposure.

Two employees, who suffered from smoke inhalation, were transported to Rumford Hospital.

One employee, Kevin McDonald, was admitted for observation, but later released. The other employee, who was not identified, was treated and released, Hudson said.

Hemingway said the building collapse was witnessed by a female employee who was working at 4:15 a.m. on a ramp to a covered catwalk connecting Building No. 15 to the maintenance structure.

“Millwrights had just passed through that area. Then the lady felt the collapse and vibrations,” he said.

She got out safely.

But had the incident occurred when the next shift’s maintenance crews began arriving for work at 5 a.m., the situation could have been much worse in terms of injuries, Hemingway said.

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