Update: Investigators reveal possible cause of Robbins Lumber mill fire

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]We have some new details into the Robins Lumberm Mill fire and explosion that happened in Searsmont almost two weeks ago. The state fire marshall's office has come out with the preliminary findings of their investigation. And they say this was all an accident. So investigators, as you remember, not only did it take them a while to get on scene, but they also needed heavy equipment like cranes to lift the silos so they could do more investigative work. And here's what they found. They found that a fire started underneath one of the silos, seemed to catch some type of tiny particles on fire. Those particles caught fire and then ignited, exploded. The silo toppled over and the fire spread to different buildings within the mill complex. This is all according according to investigators from the state fire marshall's office.

[00:00:46]Those tiny particles and sawdust are extremely flammable, and investigators say they believe that is what caught fire during the explosion, causing the fire to spread. so rapidly.

[00:00:56]Investigators did make one note here that I thought was interesting. They talked about the fire suppression system at the Robins Lumber Mill. Lumberm mills like these are required to have these fire suppression systems for safety reasons. As you can imagine, they noticed that the suppression system, which was located near the top of the silo, did not activate because the temperature up at that height, they say, was not enough to reach what's called the activation threshold. essentially getting the fire suppression system to turn on because that fire had started at the base of the silo. Investigators say they're going to be looking more into that and that they will be revisiting the Robins Lumberm Mill in the coming months to see if they can get more details on how exactly this all happened. You will remember one volunteer firefighter from the town of Moral, Andrew Cross, was killed in the fire. At least 11 other people were