Folks should not be concerned when they see the 100 Mile House Fire-Rescue on scene regularly at the local mills, says fire chief Darrell Blades.
He and his crews are working heavily with both Ainsworth Engineered Canada LP’s OSB plant and West-Fraser’s 100 Mile Lumber to continuously improve fire response, he explains.
“We’ve really taken a hard look at our responses there, and what we’re doing, and the teamwork between the fire department and the [mill] staff is excellent.
“We’re really improving the [response] systems there and how they do things.”
The fire department is now attending “a lot of small fires” at both local mills that are typically dealt with on site, he adds, in order to improve the overall emergency response structures.
“We’re doing a unified command approach to it, and we’ve made huge progress since [Ainsworth] had that … explosion on the system a couple of years ago.”
In the past few weeks, Blades says he has performed management training with a couple of managers and some staff at the OSB plant.
The fire chief notes he is running a similar type of program with West Fraser, although customized for hazards that are “a little different.”
“Every time they have a fire we sit down and go over what worked well, what didn’t work well and what we can change.
“So, it’s a very dynamic working relationship we have with the mills.”
