MAINE (From news reports) -- Firefighters from several towns worked for hours Thursday to extinguish a fire in a conveyor belt gearbox at the Sappi Somerset Mill wood yard that was difficult to access because it was surrounded by piles of wood chips, a fire official said.

"There was a fire in a mechanical portion of a conveyor system that moves chips for the Sappi processes," Skowhegan fire Chief Ronnie Rodriguez said Thursday.

Sappi officials called the fire department around 4:15 a.m. to request help with the fire, to which Madison, Canaan, Norridgewock, Fairfield and Waterville firefighters also responded, Rodriguez said. The last crews left the scene around 3 p.m., 11 hours later.

"We think something happened in the gearbox but I can't say that was the determining factor," he said.