Employees will have to immediately report to WorkSafeBC all workplace fires or explosions that could have caused serious injury to a worker, under legislation introduced Thursday by the provincial government.
It's one of the measures in Bill 35, drafted in answer to recommendations from the coroner's inquests into the Lakeland and Babine sawmill explosions.
Just one day prior to the Jan. 20, 2012 blast that destroyed Babine, located just outside Burns Lake, Lakeland in Prince George saw a "near miss" when a saw cutting logs "deviated" and produced sparks that lit the fine powdery sawdust from beetle-killed pine and sent a burst of flame high into the air.
Because no one was hurt, the incident was never reported to WorkSafeBC but, according to testimony at the inquest, it heightened the concern for Glenn Roche, 46, one of the two men who would die in a subsequent explosion at Lakeland three months later.
The legislation will also:
Require employer investigation reports be provided to the workplace health and safety committee or worker health and safety representative, or be posted at the worksite.
Specify "meaningful participation" for worker and employer representatives in employer accident investigations.
Specify a role for workplace health and safety committees to provide advice to the employer on significant proposed equipment and machinery changes that may affect worker health and safety.
Allow WorkSafeBC to proactively assist workplace health and safety committees in resolving disagreements over health and safety matters.
In all, seven recommendations from the inquests were directed at the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training.
"Following the tragic mill explosions in Burns Lake and Prince George in 2012, the government has taken action to improve workplace safety in British Columbia so that workers come home to their families at the end of the day," said Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training Minister Shirley Bond, also the MLA for Prince George-Mount Robson, in a press release.
"I hope today's proposed legislative changes signal how seriously we take the inquest jury recommendations, and represent a lasting legacy and some degree of closure for the families of the workers who lost their lives or were injured."
Al Little, 43, also died in the April 23, 2012 explosion at Lakeland. Robert Luggi, 45, and Carl Charlie, 42, died in the Babine disaster. As well, roughly 20 workers in each explosion were left with injuries, many of them suffering severe burns and concussions.
At the inquests, experts testified the fine, powdery sawdust from beetle-killed pine fueled the explosions. A common phrase throughout the inquests was that while most knew of the potential for such dust to fuel a blast in a relatively confined area like a baghouse, no one knew it could also fuel a "conflagration" or sub-sonic explosion in a more open area.
Both inquest juries found the blasts were accidental.
