Report Says Lakeland Subject of Dust Concerns Before Fatal Blast
Tuesday, August 21, 2012 @ 3:59 PM
Prince George, B.C.- Although the WorkSafe B.C. investigation into the Lakeland Mills explosion and fire has not yet been completed, a report in the Vancouver Sun says combustible dust was a problem at the facility.
According to the report, Lakeland Mills was cited by the Prince George Fire-Rescue as having serious dust issues on at least three occasions before the fatal explosion in April of this year.
According to documents accessed under a Freedom of Information request by the Vancouver Sun, Inspection reports by Prince George Fire and Rescue, warned Lakeland three times between 2007 and 2012 about the level of wood dust that had accumulated in the mill.
The Sun report says the most recent warning had come in March of this year when it was noted the mill had made significant progress in reducing levels of dust from those noted in a November 2011 inspection, but cited the mill for not keeping machinery and the building free of combustible dust.
Comments
Ouch, I guess you can call it 20/20 hindsight but an investment in more cleanup workers may have prevented the fire and subsequent explosion.
Well, the first place an employer pulls from to fill in a production job is cleanup. Any one want to argue that one?
How ironic that an entry level job (clean up) now is one of the most important jobs in a mill. Lesson? Everyone’s role is important.
So if I lost a loved one from their neglect I think I would sue!
3 warnings in 5 years or 3 inspections in 5 years and subsequent warnings. Hardly much of a concern to the fire dept if there were only 3 inspections in 5 years.
Sue for what NoWay? This report is about the fire department advising of a fire hazard. No one other than the speculators has officially stated that dust was the cause of the explosion. When that report comes out then perhaps the lawyers can be called.
What about WorkSafe BC? Don’t they have some responsibility for worker safety? When you start pointing fingers, you better be ready to implicate everyone responsible. And that includes everyone who has identified a hazard and done nothing about it.
The only conclusion thus far is that speculation as to the cause(s) of the mill explosions is rampant.
metalman.
Nothing to speculate. Take dust out of the formula and you won’t get a boom. Sure there had to be an ignition source but no dust no boom!
Yes, probably, NoWay, but none of know for sure, do we?
Having said that, I personally believe that the explosions were precipitated by the fine, dry dust generated when milling dead pine trees. As to the ignition source, who knows?
metalman.
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