Tim Morin wants some answers.
He wants to know why a modern sawmill at Lakeland Mills that was recently upgraded suddenly turned into an explosive fireball Monday night that killed Alan Little and Glenn Roche and left 22 other mill workers injured, including Morin's father Allan.
"I just want to know how it happened, because that mill is one of the safest mills," said Tim Morin. "I've never heard of anything bad happening in that mill. My dad's worked there his whole life and there's never been a bad accident when anyone got seriously hurt.
"Now, all of a sudden, there's two people who have lost their lives and so many more fighting for their lives and burnt. I'd just like to have some answers about why my dad is in there like that."
Allan Morin, 56, has worked for nearly 38 years at the sawmill. He suffered severe burns to his arms, his neck and his face, and doctors at UHNBC induced a coma to help his recovery.
"He's burnt pretty bad," said Tim Morin. "His arms, from the elbows down, weren't burnt like charcoal when I seen him. They said 30 per cent of his body got burnt.
"He's still in an induced coma and they say he'll be there for another week. They're worried about his throat and his face that keep swelling up. They can't take the [ventilator] tube out of him because his throat will swell shut."
When the mill exploded, Morin was by himself in the northeast section of the building, working with a piece of equipment that latches on to logs to direct them to the debarker. Blinded by thick smoke and flame, he hung on to a railing to guide himself to an exit door.
"He just said he kept moving, he didn't want to go like that, he just wanted to keep moving and get out of there," said Tim.
The booth Morin was in was reinforced and took the impact of the blast and he told his son that likely saved his life.
"I talked to him for about two minutes before they brought him in and operated on him and he didn't know what happened. He said he was sitting there and it just blew up," Tim said. "He said the flames went everywhere and he just jumped up and tried to get out. He told me he couldn't see nothing. He said if he would have stopped, he wouldn't have made it. He said he's lucky he made it out of there."
