ATHOL, Idaho - A worker has been killed at Idaho-based Merritt Brothers Lumber Co. in an accident.
45-year-old Robert J. Billingsley was killed trying to clear a piece of wood from a machine early Friday morning. Billingsley was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy has been ordered by the Kootenai County Medical Examiner’s Office. The accident is also being investigated by OSHA.
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“Our thoughts go out to the family and the entire small community that is affected when something like this occurs,” said David Kearns, OSHA’s area director in Boise.
In early August, the Merritt Brothers facility experienced a fire, damaging a planar mill.
Merritt Brothers Lumber uses locally grown and harvested wood to manufacture lumber boards at its Athol facility. The company specializes in structural-glued dimension lumber and finger-jointed long length lumber, which Merritt says maintains greater straightness than solid-sawn dimensional lumber.
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