Lakeland  employee Keith Ward, talks with Sinclar Group President Greg Stewart

Prince George, B.C. –  Today, for the first time since the fatal  explosion and fire at the Lakeland sawmill,  workers put in a shift at the planer mill.  Twenty two employees were on the job today.

Keith Ward has worked for Sinclar group for 35 years, and  says the  return to the  site was  welcomed by those  who returned "Overall, the morale was good,  good spirits.  People are looking forward to coming back."  But he adds they are still trying to get  through the initial "shock and awe of what happened."

Ward was on the day shift on April 23rd so he was not on site  when the  explosion rocked the  sawmill  that evening,  which resulted in the deaths of two workers, injuries to many others.  

While the exact cause of the blast  has not yet been determined, Ward says every effort is being made to  ensure the  site is clear of any dust. "We’ve always maintained safety above and beyond everything else, but for the  most part we have  had to ramp it up.  It’s going to be spotless and we will maintain that.   We are more adamant  in clean up, the forgotten corners,  the dust collection.  We do the the mainstream clean everyday, but there were things  that got overlooked that weren’t on the schedule for the guys to clean up daily.  So we’ve really cleaned the place up,  things we never thought of in the past."

Technically,  Ward says there was a little "hiccup" this morning, "We had a power phase this morning  and it’s just a  minor thing with everything having been shut down, then powered up."

Sinclar Group President  Greg Stewart says having the planer mill back up and running  is bittersweet "Obviously thoughts and memories of Glen(Roche) and Al (Little)  are front and centre and obviously the employees who remain injured and are recovering continue to be at the  forefront of our mind.  The sweet part of this is that we are getting back to work and we are doing what we can do best in this  situation and that is pushing forward and doing  what the industry regards as our sweet spot and that’s producing lumber."

 The  planer mill operation  is a short term  situation  as the mill  deals with the inventory on hand.  It is expected the planer will  have about 6 weeks of work ahead of it.

Stewart is still waiting    to hear when  WorkSafe BC will release the  site  back to the Sinclar group.  "I’m hopeful WorkSafe will be releasing the site  to us relatively soon, but at this point there is no confirmation.  That is what I would expect in an investigation as more information  t it results in more questions and I would expect them to be thorough and  investigate all the questions that do arise."