April 24th, 2012
09:38 AM ET

Canada sawmill blast kills 1, injures 23

[Updated at 12:28 p.m. ET] An explosion at a sawmill in western Canada has killed one person and injured 23 others, officials said Tuesday.

The blast happened in Prince George, British Columbia.

Ten people remained hospitalized Tuesday morning. Another 13 had been treated and released, according to a statement from University Hospital of Northern British Columbia.

FULL STORY
Post by:
Filed under: Canada • Fire
soundoff (10 Responses)
  1. saywhat

    Terrible
    Praying for the survival & quick recovery of those injured.
    Morning didn't start so well.
    Hi, all.

    April 24, 2012 at 9:52 am | Report abuse |
  2. banasy©

    This is indeed awful.
    I echo saywhat's sentiments.
    Hi, @saywhat.

    April 24, 2012 at 10:01 am | Report abuse |
  3. PEDO BEAR

    Hmmm...no surprise to me:

    Sawdust (highly flammable) + Ignition Source (spark, static electricity, open flame, etc) = big badda BOOM!!!

    My guess is, their safety procedures/protocals were not followed properly or did not exist.

    April 24, 2012 at 10:19 am | Report abuse |
    • banasy©

      I know, right?
      I can think of few other places that would be a worse place to have a fire than a sawmill...

      April 24, 2012 at 10:21 am | Report abuse |
  4. BOMBO ©

    Lots of finely ground flammable solids can act just like a flammable gas while floating around in air. Check out Mythbusters playing around with some different materials. Coffee whitener was the worst.

    Never been to PG. It's fairly decent sized community from what I hear, but off the beaten path.

    April 24, 2012 at 10:42 am | Report abuse |
    • banasy©

      Oh, I can think of worse, but as I said, they are few.

      April 24, 2012 at 10:46 am | Report abuse |
    • banasy©

      Wait a minute, wait a minute, coffee whitener?
      Do you mean the non-dairy powdered variey?
      Powdered creamer?
      I've never heard of coffee whitener...

      April 24, 2012 at 10:48 am | Report abuse |
  5. BOMBO ©

    Correct, the glucose based powdered "creamer". Blast it upward from a cannon mixed with compressed air. I think it's on Discovery's website, or at least youtube.

    April 24, 2012 at 10:51 am | Report abuse |
    • banasy©

      Time to drag the old cannon out of storage.

      April 24, 2012 at 10:53 am | Report abuse |
  6. Superman

    I drove a big rig for a transportation company and in our orientation the cautioned us about the explosive properties of flour,,,,yes it is real,,, hauled in tri and quad pneumatic trailers could be almost as bad as an empty gasoline tanker bad juju

    April 25, 2012 at 12:44 am | Report abuse |
« Back to main