BURNS LAKE — Babine Forest Products management reprimanded an employee after he posted a letter on a bulletin board raising concern about air quality in the sawmill, a coroner's inquest heard Thursday.
George George wrote the letter on Dec. 16, 2009, slightly more than two years before the Jan. 20, 2012 explosion that destroyed the mill and killed two co-workers: Robert Luggi, 45, and Carl Charlie, 42.
A millwright, George usually worked the weekend maintenance shift, when the mill did not process any lumber, but was on a weekday production shift that day.
He and a partner were called out onto the floor to repair a broken chain and George found it very dusty. Once they finished the job, George wrote the letter and put it up on a bulletin board.
When he showed up for work the next day, George was told he had been suspended for three days without pay.
George grieved the suspension and it was eventually rescinded. He received pay for the three days off work, but a warning letter was put on his file.
After that, George said he was reluctant to raise issues about work conditions at the mill.
"I got kind of intimidated," George said.
George said he didn't take his concerns to management because his immediate supervisor was not on duty at the time, only a production supervisor.
He also wanted action sooner than later.
"I felt that this issue should be addressed right away... not the next day," George said.
He gave the same reason when asked why he didn't take a more formal route, such as talking to the union about the matter.
In the letter, he urged co-workers to take the issue to their safety captains, to get a petition going to say they refuse to work under the conditions and to get WorkSafeBC to carry out an air quality audit.
George had hoped to rally co-workers around the issue.
"Strength through numbers," George said.
Dust masks, in both paper and canister forms, were available but George never wore them because his glasses would fog up so he couldn't do his work.
He said his concern was about breathing in the dust and did not know airborne sawdust could be explosive.
George Penner, an oiler and shop steward at the mill, who tesified immediately after George had finished, said he took George's concerns about dust to management once the grievance process had ended.
"They had myself and another oiler walk around during the shift on Fridays to see where there were areas to clean up and stuff like that," Penner told the inquest. "We were trying to find ways to correct the dust."
But try as management might, Penner said progress on improving the situation was "not as fast as we hoped it to be."
Penner could not say why he did not take George's concerns to WorkSafeBC or file a formal grievance over dust conditions through the union.
Nearly a year later, WorkSafe did conduct an air quality audit and found dust levels in some areas of the mill were five to six times higher than the allowable limit, the inquest heard.
While testifying, George was also critical of management's decision to do away with a "spark watch" person who kept an eye out for spot fires whenever someone had to do "hot work" such as welding.
Instead, a "buddy system" was implimented where one of the two millwrights assigned to a job was to watch for sparks but George said that isn't always realistic because two people might be needed to do the job.
George also asked that the inquest jury recommend that an inquiry into the explosion be held but coroner T.E. Chico Newell said that's not possible.
An inquest jury is limited to making recommendations to prevent similar incidents in the future and cannot assign blame.
George, whose shift had ended before the blast, remains an employee at Babine.
