A class action lawsuit has been launched against WorkSafeBC over it's conduct related to the explosions that leveled the Lakeland and Babine sawmills three years ago, killing four workers in the process.
In a notice of claim filed with the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Thursday, 10 plaintiffs allege that prior to the Jan. 20, 2012 disaster at Babine Forest Products outside Burns Lake, WorkSafeBC "knew or ought to have known that in sufficient concentrations, wood dust is combustible and poses a serious risk of explosion."
They're also claiming a list of "investigative failures" by WorkSafeBC following the two blasts, including following "generally recognized investigative best practices" and considering the possibility that criminal negligence charges were warranted.
WorkSafeBC failed to "take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the mills and to competently investigate the explosions" and subsequently betrayed class action members' trust and denied them just for their suffering and deaths of their loved ones."
Robert Luggi, 45, and Carl Charlie, 42, died in the blast that destroyed Babine and left 19 other employees with injuries, many of them serious.
Slightly more than three months later, Glenn Roche, 46, and Alan Little, 43, died from the severe burns they suffered in the April 23, 2012 explosion at Lakeland Mills in Prince George, which left more than 20 others with injuries.
Ten people are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They include four workers who were on shift at either of the sawmills when the explosions occurred, two workers who were not on shift but are claiming psychiatric injuries, two spouses of workers injured by the blasts and Little's father.
WorkSafeBC was created as a result of a "historic trade-off" that extinguished the right of workers and their families to sue an employer for workplace accidents, the notice of claim notes.
WorkSafeBC has not yet filed a response.
