R-Y Timber has decided to pull the plug on its sawmill in Livingston, Mt., about a week after a second structure fire at the site.
The first fire erupted Sept. 12 at the yard’s planer mill. R-Y opted to rebuild and was about a month away from restarting the new planer when a second fire broke out in the early morning of Feb. 7. This time, the blaze damaged the sawmill itself, destroying its roof.
With no planer and no mill, R-Y estimated it would take a full year before it could return to normal operations. In the meantime, logs were ready to mill and rough cut boards were waiting to be planed. They would begin deteriorating if not attended to sooner.
So, R-Y decided to shut down. The company closed its Townsend, Mt., sawmill in 2020.
