WATCH: It’s an nightmarish reminder of a previous tragedy, as a fire at a Burns Lake Mill has injured three workers. Geoff Hastings reports.
The Burns Lake Fire Department confirms three workers have been injured at the Pinnacle Pellet Plant.
The President and CEO of Pinnacle Renewable Energy, Leroy Reitsma, says there was a “fire-related incident” at around 8 a.m. this morning in the drying system of the facility.
The facility was shut down at the time of the fire for routine maintenance, including “regular cleaning and general repairs of the equipment.”
Two employees sustained minor injuries, however, a third employee sustained more serious injuries, but they are not considered critical.
The fire was quickly contained and no equipment was damaged.
An investigation team from WorkSafeBC is on its way to the site.
Scott McCloy with WorkSafeBC says it’s too early to rule anything out, including the possibility of combustible dust.
“WorkSafeBC was informed just after 9 a.m. that some sort of explosion or fire had occurred at Pinnacle Pellet plant today.”
“We don’t know at this point what the cause of the event was, our last major inspection was in June of this year, we are looking to get to bottom of this and to find out how and why,” says McCloy.
WATCH: Scott McCloy of WorkSafeBC responds to an explosion and fire at the Pinnacle pellet plant in Burns Lake that has injured three people.
He says WorkSafeBC has been very active in inspecting mills including Pinnacle, and that the plant would have been inspected over the past couple months.
McCloy also says Pinnacle has been fined twice in the past, and that WorkSafeBC has been working with the mill to improve its safety record.
The mill was fined $50,000 in May 2014, something Reitsma says “was related to an area of the plant where a ‘higher level of housekeeping’ was needed, due to dust accumulation.”
“WorkSafeBC, as a result of events that occurred in the forest industry, has been moving the yardsticks in terms of what they want to see in housekeeping. There’s been a real effort on our part, we’ve made great strides in getting to that standard,” says Reitsma.
The mill has been shut down as a result of this morning’s incident and all 30 employees have been evacuated to a safe area.
The Pinnacle facility in Burns Lake processes 400,000 tonnes a year.
WATCH: President and COO Leroy Reitsma of Pinnacle responds to a mill fire that injured three workers Thursday.
WorkSafeBC blamed the explosion on dangerous levels of wood dust that had accumulated.
PHOTO GALLERY: Pinnacle Renewable Energy plant in Burns Lake is pictured on Thursday after the incident.
16×9’s “Deadly Mills” investigates the explosion at the Babine Forest Products mill, and airs this Saturday at 7 p.m.
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