enlarge Photo by Valerie Tucker

Volunteer firefighter Ryan Allen returns Saturday to help put out a blaze caused by a 1:30 a.m. blast at the Geneva Wood Fuels pellet plant in Strong. Doors on the plant’s loading dock, left, bulged from the pressure of the explosion.

STRONG — "Either we're all out of a job, or we have a hell of a lot of work ahead of us," Jeff Kennedy said, looking up at the Geneva Wood Fuels pellet plant in the center of town.

Kennedy had arrived to start his 8 a.m. shift Saturday, but instead, he joined the throng of onlookers who had been standing on the street much of the night, watching as firefighters battled smoke and fire in the three-story steel-sheathed mill.

An explosion in the rear of the building at 1:30 a.m. Saturday blew most of the structure apart. Windows were either shattered or blown out onto the street below, and doors on the loading dock bulged from the pressure.

Mill managers Jeff and Lucinda Allen said there was little warning that something was wrong.

"It just blew up," Lucinda Allen said.

Scott Coolong, who lives a block from the mill, said the blast blew his air conditioner into his living room. "I looked out the window and saw a ball of fire shoot about 200 feet into the air," he said.

Other bystanders reported feeling their homes shake and that pictures fell off walls.

In spite of the damage, no one was seriously injured.

"One person was working outside in the yard," Fire Chief Scott Dyar said. "I told the other three who'd been in the mill to go to Franklin Memorial Hospital to make sure they were OK."

A sprinkler system probably kept the fire from spreading, Dyar said. Firefighters from several towns worked through the night to keep any further damage to a minimum.

The mill had been shuttered for about five years after Forster Manufacturing closed. Chicago businessmen Jonathan Kahn and Benjamin Rose bought the mill and invested several million dollars in equipment and renovations to make wood pellets.

Since March, the mill had been operating around the clock with 25 employees to meet the demand for fuel for the winter.

Kahn flew to Portland and drove to Strong to meet workers at 3 p.m. Saturday. He listened to reports indicating the mill would probably have to be razed.

Fire marshals and forensic reconstruction specialists spent the day mapping and photographing the site, and the inside damage was severe.

Kahn looked in disbelief at the 90,000-pound wood chip dryer that had been blown off its foundation in the back of the building. The concrete block wall that housed it had exploded into the log yard.

"All I can say is I'm so grateful no one was hurt," he said. "And we will rebuild this."