Despite a colossal fire bringing production to a standstill, a Gilmac manager has promised there should be no job losses to the St Arnaud operations plant.
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Gilmac Pty Ltd's operation manager for eastern Australia, Mark Heaslip, has responded to the massive industrial fire on Sunday, April 11, in St Arnaud.
"There will be no job losses, we will move some staff to other sites like Goornong or Bendigo," Mr Heaslip said.
Gilmac, a fodder exporter to east Asian beef farms, has several sites across Australia.
Mr Heaslip said on Sunday, the in and out shed, which stores the hay bales, caught fire and quickly spread to their production shed.
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"There was a report of a fire at about 7.15am Sunday morning," he said.
"The in and out shed had caught fire. When the CFA attended, the whole shed was fully ablaze, and the fire had caught onto the production shed.
"The CFA was able to save the pressing plant."
Mr Heaslip said they lost about four to five thousand hay bales.
"Production will be down for a few weeks or even months," he said.
"The in and out shed will be demolished, and we'll clear the site and see what damage has been done to the production shed.
"We don't know the financial loss but it's a big number."
Mr Heaslip said the community response was amazing.
"I'd like to say a very big thank you to the CFA who rolled up, the local farmers and our staff for doing a great job to control the fire as best they could."
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