Wednesday morning February 2, a fire caused damage to part of Saugbrug's thermo-mechanical pulp plant, which supplies the milll's paper machines with fiber. Although the fire was quickly brought under control, it caused significant damage to the plant's electrical cabling. No employee was injured as a result of the incident.All production facilities of the mill have been stopped due to the fire. Norske Skog Saugbrugs has an annual production of 550,000 tons of super calandered magazine paper and employs some 600 people. Property damages and business interruption are covered by insurance, where Norske Skog's self retention is 15 million Norwegian Kroner.Based on the initial reports from the mill, Norske Skog expects

operations at Saugbrugs to be halted for some time. At present it is

not possible to give more detailed information regarding the physical

status of the operations. The fire is a force majeure event and Norske

Skog has informed customers and suppliers of Saugbrugs about the

situation."We are satisfied with the immediate and correct response to the fire from our own employees and the support from the community emergency response services. We are pleased that no one was injured in connection with the fire. We will do our utmost to re-establish normal production at Saugbrugs as soon as possible, says Norske Skog's CEO, Sven Ombudstvedt.