THE owners of the Palfab sawmill which was destroyed by a fire yesterday are pledging to rebuild it.

GP Woods Ltd, which also owns a sawmill in Enniskeane, has 28 employees attached to the Palfab plant at Lissarda.

None of the staff were injured in the blaze, which took several hours to bring under control yesterday.

At one point, up to 12 units of the Cork county and city fire services attended the scene.

Units attended from Macroom, Bandon, Midleton, Dunmanway and Bantry, as well as two from Cork city.

Two firemen were taken to hospital as a precautionary measure after an explosion at the plant during the incident. It is understood they were injured in the blast but were not seriously hurt and were due to be discharged from hospital yesterday evening.

Paramedics were at the scene yesterday to provide assistance in the event of anyone suffering an injury.

GP Woods’ finance director Pat Twomey said the company was waiting until the fire was fully extinguished before sending a team onto the site to evaluate the damage.

And he said: “The plan is to replace it.”

Gardaí and the Health and Safety Authority were carrying out separate investigations into the fire, which ripped through the well-known plant.

Mr Twomey stressed that no jobs would be lost as a result of the fire and said it is hoped the redeploy the staff to the Enniskeane plant.

He added: “We are working hard to lessen the impact of this on staff and on our customers.”

He said that the Enniskeane plant was operating as normal.

Units of the county fire service remained at the scene throughout yesterday dampening the debris to ensure the fire would not reignite.

It is the first time such an incident occurred at the factory.