Green wood dust as explosive as dust from beetle-killed wood: WorksafeBC

VANCOUVER – New lab results stemming from an investigation into two British Columbia mill explosions earlier this year show that wood dust from both beetle-killed and green wood poses a high risk of explosion.

Jeff Bolan with WorksafeBC says green wood samples from a B.C. mill were sent to alab in the United States last month to be compared against dust from pine beetle-infested wood.

The test shows that when dust is at a certain moisture level and particle size, green wood dust can be just as explosive as dust from beetle-killed wood when ignited.

WorksafeBC has been looking into whether dust from the beetle-infested wood could have sparked the mill explosions in Burns Lake and in Prince George that killed four people and injured dozens.

Bolan says the lab results are not specific to the investigations of those two cases, but they are a warning to the industry to be aware of both green wood and beetle-kill wood dust.

Since the explosions, WorksafeBC has issued a directive to every sawmill and wood-processing operation in the province to clean up dust from their job sites.