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Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Volume 95 - No. 29
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www.ldnews.net
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$1.30 GST inc.
BURNS LAKE
LAKES DISTRICT NEWS
Babine Forest Products employees testify
Week two of inquest at mill explosion BILL PHILLIPS
Ryan Belcourt was likely the last person to talk to Robert Luggi. Belcourt, the sawmill supervisor at Babine Forest Products’ Burns Lake sawmill, was investigating why one of the edgers had broken down shortly before 8 p.m. on the evening of January 20, 2012. He met Luggi at chipper #2, he told the seven-member coroner’s jury looking into the death of Luggi and Carl Charlie. The blast also injured 19 others. “He was trying to figure out why the chipper was down,” Belcourt said, adding Luggi had called in an electrician to look at the edger and the last he saw of him, Luggi was headed up to the log deck on the other side of the mill. Belcourt then exited the main sawmill building and was just outside the sawmill office door when an explosion blew a hole in the roof and, according to WorksafeBC investigator Paul Orr, launched a 1000-pound fan 60 feet into the yard. “The first thing I remember is the power going out and getting knocked down the stairwell,” he told the jury. “I felt a pressure on my shoulder and my head and there was a rumbling sound.” That was the first part of what is typical of a deflagration, or subsonic explosion, as described by Orr. The second explosion in such circumstances is usually larger and more devastating. “I saw an electrician fly out of a window ...see EXPLOSION
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Ground breaking Patti Dube, Dirk Hofer, Pat Dube, and Shawn O’Meara break ground for the Pierce Hofer Memorial Wall Ride. The model of the wall ride (foreground) was built by Sandsmark. More on MICHAEL RIIS-CHRISTIANSON PHOTO page 12.
Fewer salmon to return this year
CNC Lakes Campus -
delivering training that you need when you need it!
Warm ocean conditions are affecting returning salmon across the province
FLAVIO NIENOW Each spring, approximately 300 million juvenile salmon make their way from every lake, river and stream in the Skeena watershed to the saltwater refuge of the Skeena estuary. These young salmon will become the adult salmon that return to the Skeena watershed during summer and fall.
CORE..................................................September 19 Aboriginal Culture and Protocols ...September 24 Occupational First Aid Level 1 ..............October 3 Enform Level 1 Basic Chainsaw .........October 19
These returning salmon are now under threat due to unusual warm weather and ocean conditions. “The little fish, the juvenile salmon coming out of the rivers this spring of 2015, have come into an environment that is very different than what they’ve normally evolved to,” explained ocean scientist Ian Perry. “They’ve come into an environment with poor fish food and a lot more predators.” “We anticipate this is going to affect their survival, their growth and we are expecting there to be fewer numbers of them coming back in the next one to three years,” he said. The warm conditions started in the fall of 2013, way out in the middle of the northeast Pacific Ocean. These conditions caused changes in the marine ...see SALMON ▼ P2
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Phone: 250.692.1700 • Fax: 250.692.1750 • Toll Free: 1.866.692.1943 545 Highway 16 West • PO Box 5000, Burns Lake, BC • V0J 1E0 Email: lksdist@cnc.bc.ca • Website: www.cnc.bc.ca/lakesdistrict