Unionized sawmill workers are being given an opportunity to reach out to their colleagues in Burns Lake following the explosion and fire that destroyed much of the Babine Forest Products sawmill on Friday evening.
"We'll be canvassing our membership to do payroll deductions to help out," United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1-424 president Frank Everitt said Monday.
Employers at Canfor and Conifex have agreed to match the donations, "and I imagine others will step up as well," Everitt said.
Two bodies have been found at the site (see story, below).
The fire, which started at about 8:15 p.m., left another 19 people injured, some with major burns.
As of Monday afternoon, seven of them have been transferred to hospitals in Vancouver, Edmonton and Victoria, while three remain in care in Prince George and one in Vanderhoof and eight have been released, according to Northern Health.
The USW is helping affected families with travel and accommodation and some local Prince George families provided places to stay, Everitt said.
"It's just one less thing that the family needs to worry about," Everitt said.
"They can focus on being with their injured spouse or family member."
Between 225 and 250 USW members work at Babine and a further 100 loggers and truckers who depend on the mill can be added to that, Everitt estimated, making it the main employer in the community of 3,600 people 226 kilometres west of Prince George.
Opened in 1975, Portland, Ore.-based Hampton Lumber Mills bought an 89-per-cent stake in Babine and neighbouring Decker Lake sawmills in 2006 from West Fraser Timber.
The other 11-per-cent stake in the sawmills is held by First Nations in Burns Lake and about 100 aboriginal people work at Babine.
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It appeared that the planer mill and the energy plant remained intact but a decision on whether to restart the planer mill or rebuild the sawmill won't be made "until more facts are known and our employees are properly cared for," Hampton CEO Steve Zilkas said in a statement posted Monday on the company's website. It will likely take a year to 18 months to rebuild the plant from the day a decision is made.
Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris said he's been assured by Service Canada that it will be "on the ground" in Prince George to help workers apply for Employment Insurance benefits and make sure "there is no added financial grief to what's happened up there."
