A fire and explosion at a Quesnel mill on March 9, 2016, resulted in no injuries.
However, Al Johnson, Vice President of Prevention Field Services for WorkSafeBC, told CBC News that the incident could have been “catastrophic and deadly.”
“There was the potential here for being catastrophic,” Johnson told CBC. “We’re very fortunate there were no injuries; there was a potential for workers to be seriously injured or worse.”
Johnson told CBC that wood dust could have been a factor in the explosion, which took place at 5:30 p.m. on the end of the WestPine MDF plant, a division of West Fraser Mills Ltd.
Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson told Black Press that the first fire truck was on scene within five minutes.
“Great kudos for the massive full complement of firefighters from all city halls who arrived very quickly,” Simpson said. “We had full turn out from volunteers, 32 of 37 firefighters responded.”
According to CBC News, it took crews almost five hours to put out the fire.
WestPine has 100 employees including staff and crew. The Quesnel mill will be closed until the damage to the WestPine MDF plant is fixed.
– With files from Annie Gallant
