Prince George, B.C. –  This morning at 7,  Lakeland Mills employees will be returning to the sawmill to resume operations  for the first time since  the explosion  in April of 2012 which claimed the lives of Glenn Roche and Alan Little and left two dozen other workers injured.

While numerous employees have been on the job  since the blast,  involved in clean up or construction,   today is the first day  the two  shifts will report  to work, and the first job is  all about focusing on safety.

“We want to make sure everyone has the same  information, has been given the same training on all the new equipment” says Marc Whitte, plant manager  at Lakeland.

110 employees,  will be getting  training on the new single line   machinery and learning the new  lockout  requirements and  operations .

The building itself has  safety features built into the design, with increased  exits,  sprinklers and  automatic window shutters all  added to the construction. (see previous story)

Once  all have completed the training, the 110 will be split into two shifts.

The new mill  will be capable of producing  200 million board feet  annually.  That’s down  from the 225 million board feet produced  at the  old mill, but that system required three shifts.

The new facility  has been  designed and built to  maximize keeping wood dust under control.

It is expected the planer mill  will be  operating in January, once an inventory of  kiln dried  wood  has been  established.