Special Task Force Established to Assist Burns Lake
Monday, January 23, 2012 @ 10:00 PM
Burns Lake, B.C. – The 400 or so who attended the public meeting in Burns Lake this evening learned of two task force projects that are underway to try and assist the Burns Lake Community in the wake of Friday’s devastating fatal explosion and fire at the Babine Forest Products sawmill.
A special task force has been organized out of the Ministry of Jobs Tourism and Innovation to examine how the community can move forward and to help the community make an economic transition. It was also announced the Village of Burns Lake , the Burns Lake and Babine First Nations, the company (Hampton Affiliates) the Regional District and the Province of B.C. have established a task force to address the short and long term issues facing the community.
The Babine Forest Products sawmill was the primary employer in the community and there is no guarantee the mill will be rebuilt.
Hampton Affiliates CEO Steve Zika, told the gathering there has been no decision on the future of the mill, nor will there be a decision until there is a secure supply of timber and the insurance issues have been dealt with. The estimates of damage could be as high as $100 million dollars.
A little over 400 people attended the meeting which including representatives from all levels of Government, the Coroner’s Service, WorkSafeBC, Northern Health, RCMP, Fire Services, First Nations, the Union, and Hampton Affiliates which owned the mill.
At times, there were heated comments as some employees expressed their anger over working conditions at the mill.
In a release issued by the company earlier in the day, Zika said the focus was on the workers ““Our hearts and prayers go out to our employees, their families and their supportive community. We have had an overwhelming outpouring of support from the community, government leaders, labour, contractors and our competitors,” said Zika, “At this time our focus is on caring for our injured and grieving employees. We are not speculating on the cause of the accident and will let the proper authorities complete their investigation. No decisions will be made on restarting the planer mill or rebuilding the sawmill until more facts are known and our employees are properly cared for,” Zika added.
Comments
Biggest question I think is if this was an accident involving a gas leak… or was this an incident that was a result of a dust explosion? If a dust explosion, then was clean up and dust control mitigation measures up to standard, and if not who is responsible for that?
Shutting the windows to the mill in minus 35 seems to be the big factor leading to the explosion, so it would appear to be trigger ready.
If dust control was a contributing factor, then I think they need to look at the level of clean up personnel the company had committed. Its the first place most mills look to save money… sometimes poor management or lazy employees don’t help either. Some mills in the area I’ve heard are short on the clean up side simply because they can’t find workers willing to do the work… one mill even postponed plans for a third shift until March due to worker shortages.
Hope the town does not get screwed by the fiberals like Barriere with no support given to the mill there after the forest fire. The logs are trucked out of the area.
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