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Photo by Steve Johnson Maurice Austen of the Oregon State Police, left, and Chuck Retzer and Dan Patterson of the Medford Fire Department look for evidence at the shell of U.S. Forest Industries' office in Medford Monday. Arson evidence found Fire at U.S. Forest Industries office inconveniences workers, but won't hamper business By DAVID PRESZLER Workers were stacked two deep in the U.S. Forest Industries mill office in White City on Monday, a day after fire destroyed the company's corporate headquarters in Medford. Arson investigators combed the burned-out shell at 2611 Whittle Ave. on Monday and have ruled out other causes for the Sunday morning blaze. "We've found no evidence of accidental causes and we have recovered some evidence that is being sent to the (Oregon State Police) crime lab," said Medford Fire Chief Dave Bierwiler. Though the building was the site of an environmental protest in May, officials said it was too early to say whether the arson was politically motivated. "It's premature to speculate about environment groups or any individual," said Bierwiler. "At this point, all we are doing is looking at the physical evidence." The office served as headquarters for U.S. Timber Industries' four mills -- the White City veneer mill, a Grants Pass plywood mill, a stud mill in Colorado and a sawmill in Florida. The protesters, a group called Ancient Forest Rescue, were opposed to a logging operation on private land called Taylor Ranch in Colorado. Jerry Bramwell, the company's president, said the controversy over the sale has eased and didn't know why the office would be a target. "We are not aware of a reason to take that kind of action," he said. "We are still involved in the sale. To the best of our knowledge, things have settled down." The same could not have been said for the company's operations Monday. The 15 workers in the Medford office -- salespeople, accountants, computer technicians, etc. -- plodded on, moving to the smaller White City mill office. "We are just doubled up," said Bramwell. "The salespeople are on the phone this morning taking orders. It's tremendously inconvenient but we are conducting business." Bramwell said the fire shouldn't hinder the company too much because backups of most key files were stored elsewhere. "There is a tremendous amount of records that are ashes," he said. "But our determination is that it is just another matter of inconvenience. "About the only thing we lost was Wednesday's business transactions and we can rather quickly and easily reconstruct those." Investigators hoped to be finished with the building by this morning so salvage operations could begin. The loss is estimated at $300,000 for the building and $200,000 for the contents. Bramwell said the company is mulling its options: rebuilding at the old site, building a new office elsewhere or leasing space. The Sunday morning fire brought 50 firefighters to the building, the first of them arriving just before 1 a.m. The fire was controlled within about 90 minutes, though mop-up operations continued through the night. "We had a lot of fire showing through the three middle windows," said Capt. Steve Shafer, whose crew was the first on the scene. Firefighters found heavy flames at the front of the building, which is where the investigation has centered. Investigators from the Medford Fire Department, Medford Police Department, Oregon State Police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are working the case. The ATF was called in because U.S. Forest Industries conducts interstate business. About a half-dozen employees arrived as the office was burning, including Bramwell. He worked at the office from 1983-90 when it was owned by Stone Container Corp. U.S. Forest Industries bought out Stone in 1996 and Bramwell took over the company in July. Since it was built in the early 1960s, the office building has housed timber companies, first Carolina Pacific Plywood, then SWF Plywood Co. and South West Forest Industries, followed by Stone and U.S. Forest Industries. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA