The fire is finally out at Lakeland Mills.
Prince George Fire Rescue shut down their operations at the blast site only 33 hours shy of a full week of hosing down the flames.
The violent explosion and inferno erupted on Monday at about 9:40 p.m. The bulk of the fire was out by Thursday but one persistent underground source kept
re-igniting.
"We finally got that last hotspot out. The day shift pulled the truck out of there around noon Sunday," said fire chief John Lane. "When you have fire trapped under that much collapse, that's what happens. The extreme example of that was the World Trade Centre towers, they had fire for months inside the rubble."
The RCMP had already done an investigation to the point of determining the incident non-criminal in nature (a file that can always be reopened if future evidence warrants), so with the end to the fire, investigations can now begin.
The BC Coroners' Service is concerned with pinpointing the cause of death.
In the Lakeland case, two are dead. Regional coroner Donita Kuzma said she had not yet been given the all-clear to begin that work but "there will be a coroner's report at the end."
Kuzma said the technical lead agency would be WorkSafeBC due to their resources and the mandate to root out the causes of workplace safety incidents. WorkSafeBC spokespeople were not available for comment on Monday, but none of the partner agencies had been given the green light to start work yet.
The blast site is itself now a worksite for all the potential investigators, which means it has to pass a WorkSafeBC test to ensure their health and safety as they sift through the evidence.
"We haven't been allowed access into the site, but we have a team ready to do that support work as soon as we are called in to do so," said Roy Siojo of the BC Safety Authority, another provincial agency that will work alongside the others.
"We will be joining that team in an effort to determine the cause," said Lane. "WorkSafeBC will be the team leaders for us as well."
"We are all going to be working alongside each other," said Kuzma. "These other agencies have specialties, and we can all rely on each others' areas of specialty. It will inform the coroner's report, but they can also come up with their own recommendations within their
areas expertise."
All agencies involved stressed the need for public patience. A similar blast at the Babine Forest Products sawmill at Burns Lake happened three months ago and investigators are still compiling evidence and data.
"It is going to take considerable time, but we want them to get it right, as opposed to make decisions because there is a lot of pressure. Let's get it right the first time rather than have to revisit it again," said Frank Everitt, president of United Steelworkers Local 1-424 representing the Lakeland employees.
