Falling ice breaks natural gas line at Prineville mill

Five days after a large part of the roof collapsed under heavy snow at the Woodgrain Millwork plant in Prineville, some workers and investigators were evacuated after a large chunk of ice slid off the roof and broke a natural gas line, an official said.

No injuries were reported from the latest incident, which brought police and fire crews to the scene just before 2:30 p.m., said Crook County Fire and Rescue Fire Marshal Casey Kump.

“A large chunk of ice slid off the roof and ruptured a two-inch gas line for the boilers,” Kump said, “on the opposite end of the mill site (from the roof collapse) — no relation to the incident several days ago.”

Kump said they worked with Cascade Natural Gas and got the line shut down.

“The ice broke the regulator off the line right before the meter,” the fire marshal said in an e-mail, explaining that “the regulator is between the shut-off valve and the meter.”

Last Friday morning’s roof collapse still has “the plant shut down for the most part,” Kump said, other than a few workers removing materials from on the other side of the plant.

“Some of the folks that were evacuated today were the insurance people and engineers that are there dealing with the roof collapse incident,” Kump explained.