Two Dead In Dust Explosion At BC Sawmill - On Top Of Beetle Kill, Another Blow To Logging Industry
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Investigators have been looking into the possibility that elevated dust levels arising from the cutting of dry, pine beetle-ravaged wood could have been a factor in the explosion of the Babine Forest Products mill in Burns Lake last January. Two workers died.
Monday night, the Lakeland Mills in Prince George exploded in a similar fireball, killing one employee and sending others to hospital with serious burns.
At the time of the Burns Lake explosion, those with many years experience in the woods industry said they could not recall a similar incident, where a mill basically blew up in a fireball. Now there have been two such explosions .
Although there are no immediate answers about the cause of the explosion at Lakeland Mills or at the Babine Lake mill, Ms. MacDiarmid said she is not prepared to wait for the investigators to reach their conclusions - a process that could take several more months. That will take some time we know, but there is a common factor here, we are all aware of it: Its sawdust, she told reporters in Victoria.
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-government-orders-top-to-bottom-inspection-at-sawmills/article2412865/