Now that the expensive fire is nearly extinguished at a Niagara Falls cardboard manufacturing plant, operations are slowly returning to normal.
The Norampac/Greenpac mill in the Cataract City represents a $463 million bet on the future of the paper and cardboard industry and on re-starting manufacturing in the city.
Then, Saturday afternoon a massive fire burst out among the giant bales of used paper and cardboard required in the process. At the peak, half the city's Fire Department and volunteers from 13 companies were at the scene trying to put out the fire and save the plants.
"I was like looking down the line at one point, Saturday night, Sunday morning, and you've got firefighters there just like infantry men in World War I trying to hold the line right along the edge of the building," said Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster.
"They did an absolutely tremendous job and protected something that's going to be an industrial asset for our region for a generation to come."
Officials from the company, and parent company Cascades, immediately flew in and are already getting things re-started. They are deciding what has to be done to get the plant back in full operation, including what to do about a warehouse which was destroyed. Meanwhile, workers are taking apart the bales and wetting down the last embers.
