SEARSMONT — In the hours after an explosion rocked this small Midcoast town last week, killing a local firefighter, injuring a dozen more and sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky, a sense of unease settled in among residents.

This will be devastating.

Robbins Lumber, where the fire and explosion occurred, isn’t just any business. Over the course of the mill’s nearly 150-year history, it has grown to rely on the Waldo County community and its 1,500-odd townspeople.

And they have come to do the same.

That dynamic was palpable last week as locals in this usually reserved town grappled with a tragedy that continues to draw an outpouring of support from across the state.

“Everyone knows someone who works there, or who has worked there,” Tammy Rector, co-owner of Searsmont’s general store, said from behind the counter. “Either that or they know one of the firefighters who responded.”

One of those firefighters was 27-year-old Andrew Cross, a volunteer from the neighboring town of Morrill who lost his life. Searsmont’s fire chief, assistant fire chief and EMS chief were all hospitalized, along with three members of the Robbins family, which owns the mill.

Robbins Lumber has been closed since the explosion and although the family has pledged to reopen, it’s not clear when that will happen. The facility sustained extensive damage and state and federal officials are still investigating what caused the fire and subsequent explosion.

Still, before the smoke had even cleared, residents of Searsmont seemed to make a collective, if unspoken choice: They wouldn’t dwell on the destruction; they would recover and help their flagship business return to form; and they would do it quickly.

“Everybody came together pretty much immediately,” Town Selectman Chris Staples said last week. “Everybody dropped everything. That’s just what we do for each other.”

TOWN AND MILL LINKED FOR NEARLY 150 YEARS

The Robbins Lumber mill and the town of Searsmont are, in many respects, one and the same.

The operation, which specializes in producing sturdy, handsome boards of Eastern white pine, is a lifeline for the community. It provides more than 100 jobs and makes up a big chunk of the town’s tax base.

And unlike many other lumber mills in Maine that have been consolidated or bought up by larger, sometimes multinational companies, Robbins has always been family-owned and operated since the beginning.

That’s a point of pride for many residents of Searsmont, which is, like most of the state’s small rural communities, made up of families that go back generations, like the Robbinses.

Just as running the mill is a family affair for the Robbins, so is working there for many employees.

“They’re integral in this community,” Staples said. “They’ve got about 115 employees here in town. That’s 115 families they support, just with that operation.”

But Robbins Lumber’s reach into the community is even bigger.

Students from Regional School Unit 71, the local district, and the University of Maine often take field trips to the facility. It serves as a reminder of just how important the mill is for life in Searsmont and the dozens of towns just like it up and down the Midcoast.

Members of the Robbins family have served on the community’s planning and school boards. Jenness Robbins, great-grandson of the founder who ran the company for decades until his death in 2024, donated the land the Searsmont Community Building now sits on. He and other residents also came together to donate materials and help build the facility, which houses the town offices, library and historical society.

“This is Searsmont,” Robbins told Down East Magazine at the time. “This is who we are.”

The workers at Robbins help keep the town running, too. When storms blow through the area, it’s Robbins employees who help clear downed trees from the road. When the town needs help plowing snow off the roads, it’s often Robbins workers who lend a hand.

Searsmont’s firefighting force is entirely made up of volunteers, selectman Pete Milinazzo said. And most of them have day jobs working at Robbins.

“They’re a huge and tremendous resource for this community,” said Milinazzo. “They help any way they can. In the middle of the day, the middle of the night — no question.”

‘PIVOTAL’ TO THE INDUSTRY

Robbins also serves a unique role in Maine’s lumbering industry. It’s one of the biggest white pine mills in the country — a niche it carved out for itself.

Since its founding in 1881, it’s remained a bulwark amid the broader decline in Maine’s lumber industry.

The white pine is Maine’s state tree. It’s used for decorative applications like paneling and furniture. And it was the Robbins family that helped introduce it to the milling industry, according to Jeff Easterling, the president of the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association.

“They were very proactive in educating basically the whole eastern half of the country of what eastern white pine was,” he said. “It was a small market that they worked to grow.”

Robbins is now one of the only lumber mills on the Midcoast. Being farther from the northern parts of the state traditionally associated with the forest products industry makes it not just an important source of employment for those working at the mill, but a crucial economic lifeline attached to a supply chain that runs across the whole state, according to Adam Daigneault, associate professor of forest policy at UMaine.

Daigneault grew up in the nearby town of Lincolnville, just about 10 miles away. He took a tour of Robbins Lumber when he was in elementary school, like so many other kids, and he attributes his career path in part to that field trip. Now in a teaching role, Daigneault takes all of his first-year college students to the mill for the same tour.

“It’s just part of life out here,” he said.

REBUILDING EFFORTS BEGIN

For many in Searsmont, the adrenaline created after the explosion has started to wear off. The smoke that lingered in the air has dissipated. The reality of the situation is sinking in.

The Fraternity Village General Store is the only place in town to get hot food and cold drinks. On a normal day, around noon, it fills with a herd of Robbins employees grabbing lunch. Many of those workers have become “like family,” said co-owner Amanda Boyington.

It was just before lunch rush last Friday when the explosion ripped through the mill. From inside the store, Boyington could hear the unusual number of fire trucks and ambulances whizzing up the two lane road that cuts through Searsmont’s town center.

“We knew it was gonna be bad,” she said.

The store became a sort of staging ground for the community response, which was immediate and robust. Dozens from Searsmont and the surrounding communities heeded the call. By the early afternoon on Friday, the general store’s back room was nearly entirely full with donated supplies.

The store began accepting cash donations that would be given to victims of the fire and their families. Within hours, Boyington and Rector had raised more than $2,000.

“I’ve never experienced something like this before,” Boyington said. “I mean, who has the right words?”

With the mill closed and the investigation still ongoing, the store’s lunch rush looks a little different now. Rather than Robbins employees, it’s agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stopping in for pizzas and sandwiches.

The locals chat the agents up while they each wait in line to order. Sometimes, they’ll offer to pay for their food. “It’s the least we could do,” one man said on Tuesday as he patted an ATF investigator on the shoulder.

Donation drives for the families of those injured or killed in the fire have collected tens of thousands of dollars so far. The town has made its own recovery fund, too. Other companies in Maine’s lumber industry, competitors even, have chipped in thousands more to help Robbins rebuild.

“Over the last several days, we have seen the very best of Maine,” State Fire Marshal Shawn Esler said this week.

The explosion happened just over a week before the town’s annual Memorial Day parade. It’s a landmark event for the community that draws hundreds of people each year. It’s highlighted on the “Welcome to Searsmont” signs hugging the town’s borders.

There was debate about whether this year’s parade should continue as planned. The wake of a deadly fire is seldom the most opportune time to celebrate. But as Staples, one of the town’s selectmen said, “It feels more important this year.”

The parade will go ahead as planned on Monday. The town is expecting turnout twice as large as most years. It might be less celebratory than years past, Staples said. But the sense of community will likely be stronger.