Burns Lake Mill fire inquest begins Monday

The village of Burns Lake is hoping for closure.

The Coroner’s Inquest into the explosion of Babine Forest Products starts Monday.

Roughly 46 people are expected to be called over the next three weeks to share their accounts of the January 2012 fire.

“Quite a number of the employees, survivors, and people who went through this can hear from their perspectives,” says Coroner Counsel John Orr, “The chief coroner was persuaded by the community themselves, that this needed to be done in Burns Lake because it’s a small community.”

No criminal charges were laid in the wood dust explosion that killed Carl Charlie and Robert Luggi and injured 19 others.

A WorkSafeBC investigation found the fire could have been prevented if wood dust had been removed.

Orr says the point of the inquest is to solidify facts, not assign blame.

Of course, when a tragedy occurs in a small community, no-one is unaffected.

“What we learned is that it reached out and touched almost everyone in the community,” explains Orr, “part of the process in an inquest is to ensure that the community has a full opportunity to listen to the people that were involved, and to hear it first hand.”