A fatal logging accident took place near the Holberg Inlet on the morning of July 24.
WorkSafeBC received a call at 9:30 a.m. from Western Forest Products after an accident involving a faller working on a cut block near the Holberg Inlet. Trish Knight Chernecki, WorkSafeBC senior manager of media and government relations, said Friday that two WorkSafeBC officers were heading by aircraft to the remote area.
Amy Spencer, director of communications and government relations at Western Forest Products, confirmed one fatality from the accident.
WorkSafeBC said the faller who was killed was an employee of Coast Forest Industries, based in Port McNeill. Operations were suspended at the work site Friday and crews sent home.
The investigation into the accident is ongoing. WorkSafeBC investigates fatal workplace accidents to determine what happened and how to prevent it from occurring again.
The forestry industry has historically been considered a dangerous one.
In the 1980s the industry had the highest rate of lost time injury and the highest fatality rate in Canada.
The serious injury rate for the forestry industry in 2012 was 2.3 claims per 100 workers, compared to the serious injury rate for all of B.C. at .8 claims per 100 workers, according to WorkSafeBC statistics.
