Prince George, B.C.- The inquest into the deaths of Alan Little and Glenn Roche   is underway with the first two witnesses  telling the Coroner’s jury that  both men had concerns about the  cleanliness of the Lakeland Mill.

The two  men died,  22 others were injured, when the mill erupted in flames in April of 2012.Joanna Burrows,  common law partner of Alan Little,  testified he was  stressed in the months  before the fatal explosion in April of 2012,  concerned about  increased production levels and   the levels of sawdust in the facility.  She  said there was one time  he came home  covered in what she  described as “snowdrifts of sawdust”  that   his curly hair was caked in sawdust.

She talked about Alan Little  suffering  chest pains, and grinding his teeth at night as he became  concerned about the state of the mill and that he  “felt safety was being compromised.”.

Those concerns  were repeated in testimony from Rhonda Roche,   widow of  Glenn Roche.  She read a statement, describing Glenn as a loving  husband and father,  who was a cleanliness “freak”  and  that just before the Babine mill explosion ( in January of 2012)  helped put out a fire at Lakeland “He said the air in front of him was on fire.”  She said  that  when Babine Forest Products Mill in Burns Lake exploded and burned to the ground,  Glenn was “Almost in tears, he  said I think we could be next and it could take me too.”

She sais  Glenn was concerned enough about the state of the Lakeland Mill that he wanted to make sure their family bank account was  high  because he feared the mill would  burn to the ground and there would be no income  to cover them.

The Coroner Lisa LaPointe has  permitted  framed images of the two men to  remain in the courtroom during the course of the inquest  as a reminder of why this inquest is underway.

The inquest expects to  hear from 47 witnesses, and is scheduled to  take three weeks,