LYNDEN - The Darigold milk plant that was damaged in a fire over the weekend could take months to get back to full capacity, according to a spokeswoman for the company.
The milk plant, located at 8424 Depot Road, is operating at 60 percent of capacity after the fire damaged one of two dryers that turn milk into powder, spokeswoman Michelle Carter said.
Carter estimated that it could take three to five months to repair the damage and get back to full capacity at the plant, which usually converts about 4 million pounds of milk into powder every day. The majority of that powder is then exported.
Nearly 30 firefighters from Lynden, North Whatcom Fire and Rescue, and Whatcom County Fire District 7 in Ferndale responded to the plant at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, after an earlier fire in a dryer had apparently spread to another part of the building.
Firefighters responded to the original dryer fire at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, and with help from Darigold engineers using special sensors, they believed that the fire was out. But those sensors may have been damaged by the fire and not working properly, and about two hours later Darigold employees heard a blast as the second fire erupted.
Flames and smoke billowed from the burning building, and a Darigold employee was trapped on top of a silo at the center of the building. Firefighters used a ladder truck to get to the top of the silo and rescue the man, whose name wasn't released due to privacy regulations. The employee was taken to St. Joseph hospital, treated for smoke inhalation and released the same day, said Carter, who was thankful for the firefighters' quick rescue work.
The exact cause of the dryer fire remains under investigation, and Carter didn't yet have hard numbers for how much damage the plant sustained in the blaze.
She also couldn't say how plant workers might be affected.
The loss of production capacity at the plant shouldn't affect local dairy farmers who sell to Darigold, nor should it affect the price of milk at stores. Carter said that other Darigold plants will make up for the reduced milk powder production while the Lynden plant is repaired.
Last November alone, 119 dairy farms in Whatcom County produced 80.9 million pounds of milk, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It's the second highest county total in the Pacific Northwest; Yakima County had the highest total, with 72 farms producing 203.9 million pounds of milk in November.
Much of Whatcom County's milk goes to the Darigold facility in Lynden, where it is then converted to powdered milk and shipped to food processing facilities nationwide as well as to Asian countries.
