Co- workers heard desperate pleas of ‘ save us’ come in over the radio
Blaine Williams was on a meal break when he heard the boom. Seconds later, the lights went out. Then, “everything lit up orange.”
“I looked behind me and saw a big ball of fire going up,” said Williams, a forklift operator at the Babine Forest Products sawmill east of Burns Lake, about 228 kilometres west of Prince George.
“We thought it was another forklift driver ... we ran and got our flashlights and were calling for him.
“We ran around a load of wood to get to him and I stopped in my tracks. The whole building was engulfed in flames.”
As the mill began collapsing, Williams radioed an alarm to evacuate the building. He then raced to the muster area in the parking lot, where workers have been instructed to meet for a head count in an emergency.
“By the time I got to the parking lot, everything was in commotion,” he said.
It was just after 8 p. m. Friday and frigid outside at - 22 C. Injured workers with severe burns to their faces and limbs clung to each other as they fought to escape the burning building.
One man, bleeding from his head and badly burned across his back, was wandering dazed and shirtless in the cold. Others jumped from the second floor after finding the mill’s main- floor entrances blocked by flames.
Machinery operator Gordie Alec, 57, who thought everyone had died when the sawmill exploded, was surprised to hear desperate pleas of “save us” coming over the radio.
We went to a side door and heard people screaming in there because the roof had collapsed. Another man we found in the basement because he fell through the floor. All of us were shocked. The parking lot was like a nightmare. I was seeing burnt individuals, burnt faces ... it was like a horror movie, except it was real.
GORDIE ALEC
BFP MACHINERY OPERATOR
“We went to a side door and heard people screaming in there because the roof had collapsed,” Alec said. “Another man we found in the basement because he fell through the floor.
“All of us were shocked. The parking lot was like a nightmare. I was seeing burnt individuals, burnt faces ... it was like a horror movie, except it was real.”
Burns Lake fire chief Jim Mcbride was at home watching a movie when his dispatch radio sounded. His heart pounded as he jumped in his truck and headed east on Highway 16, siren blaring. It took 20 minutes to get to the mill — about twice as long as usual because of the blizzard.
“A lot things go through your mind,” said Mcbride, a 36- year veteran of the volunteer fire crew. “Why would a sawmill blow up?”
About a kilometre from the mill, he could see the orange glow through the falling snow.
Mcbride, the first firefighter to arrive, said he had never seen a building that large on fire before. He said people looked panicked. When someone yelled: “We’re going to take these six guys to the hospital,” he shouted that ambulances were on the way.
But Williams and the others wouldn’t wait.
“As the people were coming out we started loading up our vehicles,” Williams said. “There were people who had severe burns all over.”
Williams loaded three of the burn victims into his truck. Ignoring his foreman’s orders to remain on site, he drove the men to Lakes District Hospital, about 20 minutes away.
“I’d seen the extent of the injuries of the guys in my truck,” he said. “There was no way I was going to wait for an ambulance. ... I wanted to get them to town right away.
“They were in a lot of pain. It was starting to set in and they were starting to feel the burns.”
When Williams arrived at the hospital, the doctors handed him a pair of scissors and told him to cut off the victims’ clothing so they could treat them faster and reduce the risk of contaminating the hospital.
He was told to stay at the hospital, where another head count was done to ensure the mill workers were safe.
Two workers — Carl Charlie and Robert Luggi — were reported missing. Nineteen people were injured and airlifted to hospitals across B. C. and into Alberta — three seriously injured to Vancouver General, one to Fort St. John, two to Edmonton’s University Hospital, two to Smithers and seven to University Hospital of Northern B. C. in Prince George.
Vancouver Coastal Health said Sunday a fourth patient requiring critical care “has been identified for transfer from the University Hospital of Northern B. C.” but did not have a definite time for his arrival.
Emergency crews from Fraser Lake, Houston and Vanderhoof poured into Burns Lake, a village of 3,600, navigating icy highways and blizzard- like conditions to offer aid.
Roughly two dozen firefighters from around the region used a water tanker to try to douse the flames — the explosion knocked out the mill’s fire sprinkler system, Mcbride said.
During the blaze, firefighters Reg Leith and Dirk Hofer found three workers wandering aimlessly inside and pulled them to safety.
Crews battled the fire for more than seven hours in rotating shifts. The fire was contained, but continued to burn, hampering police efforts to find the missing men or to figure out what happened.
By early Saturday, the mill’s water reservoir ran dry. “We drained their pond,” Mcbride said. At that point “we decided there’s not much more we can do.”
Mcbride said he’s grateful none of his firefighters were injured. Four of them work at the mill, which employs 250 people from the village and is run by Babine Forest Products. About 30 people were on shift at the time of the explosion.
On Friday morning, Alec’s brother Archie, who worked the day shift, had reported smelling something burning or smouldering at the mill. Two millwrights investigated but didn’t find anything.
Archie said the condition continued to worsen during the day, with the stench becoming stronger and the air smokier.
“It was building up as the day went along,” he said, adding he heard the news of the explosion after he’d finished his shift. “We thought it was just a minor fire but the whole place is gone.”
Gordie Alec, who has worked at the mill for 37 years, said no one slept that first night because “we kept seeing that explosion in front of us.”
“Not only are we hurt, but the whole community is,” Alec said.
As the wounded were airlifted out to different hospitals, the Burns Lake community pulled together and began to mourn.
On Saturday, more than a dozen family members of Derek Macdonald gathered at University Hospital in Prince George.
Macdonald, one of the men whose radioed pleas for help reached Gordie Alec, suffered burns to his face, ears, hands and part of his back in the explosion, but was in stable condition, said his sister- in- law Barb Abraham.
Abraham travelled 230 kilometres from Burns Lake after a major snowfall to join other family members at the hospital.
He may need to be transferred to Vancouver where there is a burn unit, but “everything looks fine from what the doctors were saying,” said Abraham, standing outside the hospital in the cold, crisp air.
“It’s been a big shock to the community,” said Abraham.
Although Macdonald was heavily sedated, his family learned earlier he had asked that other people be taken to the hospital before him. “He’s that kind of guy. He helps others before himself,” said Candace Fisher, also a sister- in- law.
Macdonald, who has 10 brothers and sisters, is a member of the Lake Babine Nation.
Antoinette Tom, whose father had worked at the mill for 33 years, said the entire community is at a loss.
“We’re coping,” she said. “My dad’s pretty choked up about it. I’ve never seen him cry but he’s crying now and I don’t know what to do. There’s nothing to go back to now.”