A Day of Mourning for two BC towns

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BURNS LAKE (NEWS1130) – A Day of Mourning is being held in Burns Lake and Prince George today to remember those killed in two sawmill explosions.

In January, an explosion destroyed the Babine Forest Products Mill in Burns Lake. Two workers were killed and 40 more injured.

On Monday, an explosion and fire ripped through Lakeland Mills in Prince George, killing two people and injuring more than 20 others. On Thursday, Mounties announced the explosion was not criminal in nature.

Scott McCloy with WorkSafe BC says today is difficult to get through, but important.

“There’s an air of expectation that we all have when we get up in the morning, we go to work and then we come home in the same shape we went to work in,” believes McCloy. “And in this case, those two workers died and more than 40 injured and that is not supposed to happen.”

McCloy adds the Burns Lake disaster affected everyone in the tight-knit community.

“These things are felt deeply and painfully and that’s how it should be because it forces us to re-examine our expectations about health and safety and to commit in the future to doing a better job. This is not about blame, this is about commitment.”

Thousands of communities across the country are paying tribute to fallen and injured workers today.

This will be the first Day of Mourning in Burns Lake. In Prince George, the community will mark the day with a ceremony and funeral for one of the workers killed on Monday.

Last year, WorkSafeBC recorded 142 workers killed on the job, including 42 who died in work site accidents.

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