WATCH: B.C.’s coroners inquest began today into the 2012 explosion and fire at Lakeland Mills with emotional testimony from two women whose husbands died in the horrific accident. Catherine Urquhart reports.
A coroner’s inquest is scheduled to begin today into the deaths of two Prince George sawmill workers.
Glenn Roche and Allan Little were killed when the Lakeland Mill exploded into flames nearly three years ago, injuring 22 other people.
Friends and family members say they want to hear exactly what safety protocols were being followed, especially for airborne sawdust inside the facility.
The owners of the mill said combustible sawdust was an unknown risk. However, a 16×9 investigation found that dust fires and explosions have been a known hazard for decades throughout North America. And workers told 16×9 the company had ample warning about the risks of accumulated sawdust, especially in the wake of another fatal sawmill explosion months earlier in Burns Lake, B.C. But they say their warnings were ignored.
WATCH: The survivors of the two 2012 deadly sawmill explosions in British Columbia are still waiting for what they call justice. Ryan Clay, a survivor of the Babine sawmill explosion, talks to producers of 16×9’s investigation “Deadly Mills”
The provincial government decided not to hold a public inquiry in the case, and the Crown declined to lay criminal charges, because of flaws in the original Worksafe BC investigation.
The facility reopened for business last December, but the owners were fined $700,000 by WorkSafe BC.
A separate inquest will be held in July for the two men who were killed in another sawmill explosion in Burns Lake in January 2012.
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