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West Fraser Sues Over NCP Fire

By 250 News

Friday, April 17, 2009 03:49 AM

Prince George, B.C.- There are still embers from the fire which destroyed Canfor’s North Central Plywood plant in Prince George last May.
West Fraser has launched a lawsuit against Canfor and Interior Warehousing for the loss of 918 units of MDF fibreboard. (at right, flames lit up the night sky as NCP burned, photo Opinion250 archive)
The suit, filed in B.C. Supreme Court, alleges the fire (which destroyed the fibreboard) was the result of Canfor’s negligence in maintenance and operation of the plywood plant.  
 
The suit also alleges Interior Warehousing was negligent and/or in breach of contract for failing to have a proper system in place to prevent the start or spread of the fire.
More than 260 people lost their jobs when the plant went up in flames May 26th of last year.

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Posted on Friday, April 17, 2009 03:49 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Comment Posted by: BCRacer on April 17 2009 5:45 AM
Yawn!
Comment Posted by: metalman on April 17 2009 7:10 AM
Typical. The lawyers win, win and win some more. Purchasers of insurance face increases in premiums. Same stuff, different day.
metalman.
Comment Posted by: Big-Wayne on April 17 2009 7:46 AM
It's all about the $$$
As usual
Comment Posted by: Jimmi on April 17 2009 8:47 AM
why wern't they insured?
Comment Posted by: He spoke on April 17 2009 9:01 AM
Jimmi, they are insured. Unless you sue people the insurance does not kick in. Unfortunately, this is the way business is set up. It is probably incorrectly, or misleading the story. The warehouse owner can only deal with a fire starting from inside the building not from outside sources, that is why if they had a sprinkler system to suppress the fire, it would have not made any difference.
Comment Posted by: kitkat on April 17 2009 11:16 AM
Interesting. Quite the allegation, how are they going to prove Canfor was negligent in operation and maintenance of NCP? I wonder how much the 918 'units' were worth?
Comment Posted by: Robin Hood on April 17 2009 8:02 PM
I think negligence would be easier than you think to prove.

I'm sure WF's lawyers will be tracking down any maintenance and production workers to ask them what kind of shape NCP was in.
Comment Posted by: mythoughts on April 18 2009 1:21 PM
Many of those maintenance and production workers are now working in other Canfor mills so I doubt they would say to much. Canfor placed as many as they could in other sawmills and pulpmills.
Comment Posted by: kitkat on April 18 2009 8:06 PM
Robin Hood, I'm not sure it will be as easy as you think. Allegations are just that, without proof it's just speculation. As far as Canfor putting as many people to work as they could, keep in mind they have shut down numerous mills and many (perhaps most) people from NCP are still without work.
I'm going to follow this story though because it is not the usual run of the mill course of business.