WorkSafeBC is now on site at Lakeland Mills to determine what caused an explosion and fire there last Monday night.
They were sent in when the RCMP concluded their initial investigation, ruling it a non-criminal incident. Prince George Fire Rescue then finished putting the fire out this past Sunday.
Now, said WorkSafeBC spokeswoman Donna Freeman, the next step is to determine the site's safety level for the investigators who will go into the building's remains.
"The first responsibility we have is to ensure we identify the hazards at the site - ranging from dangerous debris, hot spots, presence of hazardous materials, ensure remaining structures are stable - to name a few - and to mitigate/eliminate these hazards to ensure the safe access of our officers and other parties we use in the
investigation," Freeman said.
The provincial workplace safety authority will lead the overall investigation, but a number of agencies will be doing their own probes into the incident.
The BC Safety Authority has jurisdiction over certain components of the Lakeland operation (particular pieces of equipment and their systems); Prince George Fire Rescue has jurisdiction over determining the ignition point and possible cause of the fire; the BC Coroners' Service has jurisdiction over determining the cause of death of workers Glenn Roche and Alan Little; and WorkSafeBC will look into all elements of workplace safety.
Each of these agencies will work independently and come out with their own reports on the Lakeland blast.
They will also share each other's resources to help the overall investigation.
Prince George Fire Rescue Service still has a pair of fire trucks at the scene.
Freeman said WorkSafeBC's work to assess the dangers to investigators was underway as of Tuesday "with assistance from engineers of course" and a safety plan would be devised to allow for the investigation.
"They will rope off any identified hazards and create 'Safe Zones' that are accessible," she said.
This is the same method of operation used at the Babine Forest Products blast site when that mill exploded and burned on Jan. 20.
Investigators there were able to start in safe areas and progress across the whole wreckage scene as it was made safe.
It took WorkSafeBC about two months of
investigation before the Babine site was released back to the owners, and the collected data is now being analyzed with no estimated time of
completion.
