In the last three months there have been two unusual explosions in BC ‎sawmills.

The latest, at the Lakelands Mill in Prince Rupert BC has claimed two lives, ‎and left a number injured. Sawmills, while heavy industrial worksites, have ‎nevertheless achieved a steady-state safety profile.  Accidents are relatively ‎few, deaths less frequent, and whole sawmills certainly don’t blow up ‎regularly. Until now.

After two sawmills have blown up, one line of inquiry is turning to the product ‎they were cutting.  They were both sawing dead timber that had been killed by ‎pine beetles. The dead wood is much drier, more brittle, and leaves a very fine ‎sawdust that is more prevalent.  Was this sawdust somehow an explosive spark, ‎a fuel that was lying about waiting to ignite or some other precipitating factor?

The circumstances are unusual, and after the second accident, the question is ‎now being focused on an environmental change – moving to sawing dead ‎timber from live, recently cut timber.  Due to the pine beetle there is a lot of ‎dead timber. In the interim, the BC government has ordered the mills to be ‎extra diligent in cleaning up the sawdust.