B.C. company appeals $724,000 fine after fire killed two workers, injured 22

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PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. – The company that owned a northern B.C. mill destroyed by a deadly fire has filed an appeal of penalties and levies totalling more than $724,000.

The April 23, 2012 blaze at Lakeland Mills in Prince George claimed the lives of 43-year-old Alan Little and 46-year-old Glen Roche and injured 22 others.

Lakeland spokesman Cam McAlpine says that WorkSafeBC issued the sanctions against Lakeland in May, after the Crown’s decision in April not to prosecute the company for regulatory infractions under the Workers Compensation Act.

An investigation did not come up with a conclusive cause for the fire but did determine it ignited in the basement, setting alight combustible sawdust.

The order against Lakeland followed a $1-million fine against the Babine Forest Products mill in Burns Lake for a similar blast just months earlier that also killed two employees and injured more than two dozen others.

WorkSafeBC spokeswoman Trish Knight Chernecki says the agency’s policy is not to comment during the appeal process.

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