PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An explosion at a rural lumber mill near Portland has killed one man and injured two others.
Gaston, Ore., Fire District spokesman Ken Bilderback said 60-year-old Steve Allen of Forest Grove was killed Wednesday afternoon in the explosion at the Stimson Lumber plant. Allen was flown to a Portland hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Two other workers were injured when a 6-foot-long cylinder called a hydraulic accumulator exploded in the mill’s maintenance shop. Bilderback tells The Oregonian the men were dismantling the cylinder, which they thought was not pressurized, but the end of it blew off under high pressure.
The spokesman says a 58-year-old Yamhill man is believed to have a broken leg and other injuries and was taken to a Portland hospital. A 40-year-old Forest Grove man suffered a shoulder injury and was taken to a community hospital.
