Category Archives: Health & Safety

Sixteen B.C. firefighters tested positive for COVID-19 after returning in October from assisting with fires in California, the BC Wildfire Service confirmed Monday. Forrest Tower, BC Wildfire Service communication and engagement specialist, told Black Press Media the 16 people who tested positive are all staying in a facility in Richmond, B.C. that is designated for COVID-19 quarantining. “There are about 169 firefighters in total that are in Richmond quarantining right now who are following the recommendations of the public health authority,” he said Monday. …Symptoms experienced by the firefighters who tested positive warranted them getting tested, but nothing that has required hospitalization, Tower noted.

B.C.’s 2019 workplace death rate matched a record high of 203 set six years ago, with two thirds of those accepted as WorkSafeBC claims at a cost of almost $1.34 billion, a jump of $113 million. The rate dropped in 2015 but has crept back up as the number of injuries increased year over year, the report from B.C.’s workplace health and safety regulator said. …The construction sector is B.C.’s deadliest, with 33 deaths in 2019, general construction leading the way with 30 deaths. Transportation and warehousing saw 25 deaths, manufacturing 24, public administration 21, the service sector 19 and retail and wholesale trade one each. The forestry sector leads primary resource industries for 2019 deaths at eight, followed by oil, gas and mineral resource (3), fishing (2) and agriculture (1). …WorkSafeBC covers 2.51 million workers at 249,336 registered, insured employers.

An investigation is ongoing following the death of a worker at a Hinton, Alta. pulp mill on Monday that prompted a stop work order for a scaffolding contractor.  A spokesperson for the province’s ministry of labour and immigration confirmed in an email that a worker fatality at the West Fraser Mills Hinton site was reported to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) on the evening of Oct. 5th.  A stop work order was issued to AlumaSafway — a scaffolding company that was a contractor at the site — for inadequate fall protection, according to the province.   The OHS investigation is ongoing.  In an emailed statement, an AlumaSafway spokesperson confirmed that Norman Hatami was the worker who died.  “Norman was a highly respected member of the AlumaSafway team, and his passing represents an enormous personal loss to us, his family, and his loved ones,” said Karla Cuculi, vice president of communications.

Lumby parents are raising the alarm over the safety of their children following another logging truck accident on Thursday. A loaded logging truck tipped early Thursday on Mabel Lake Road, and Castanet reported earlier this summer that another had crashed on Sugar Lake Road. …Liane Leger posted to the Lumby Around the Block Facebook group: “As a parent, this is very concerning that an elementary school child is required to walk over a kilometre from the bus stop, on a very busy road that is used for hauling industrial products and has no sidewalks or lighting for safety.” …”This morning, there was a major accident with a logging truck … Thankfully, this time, the accident was earlier in the morning, and no children were on the road at the time,” she said.

VANCOUVER — There’s a new plume of wildfire smoke drifting up the U.S. coast towards British Columbia, but meteorologists expect the air will stay much more breathable this time around. That’s because the smoke heading for southwestern B.C. is significantly less concentrated than the smoke that blanketed the Lower Mainland for more than a week earlier this month, according to meteorologist Matt MacDonald. While the last plume was the result of wildfires burning simultaneously burning in California, Oregon and Washington, the new one comes from California alone. MacDonald said there’s about one tenth as much fine particulate matter per cubic metre of air. “The last smoke episode we had there when it looked like Armageddon in Vancouver, the particulate counts were upwards of 200 to 300 (micrograms per cubic metre),” said MacDonald. …By comparison, for the latest plume, models are currently forecasting concentrations of 20 to 40 micrograms.

Crews were called to the Pinnacle Renewable Energy pellet manufacturing plant in Lavington, BC on Tuesday after a blaze ignited in a piece of drying equipment inside the facility, local news organizations reported. … Reports said the fire generated a large volume of heavy smoke. … The facility sustained minor damages during that incident. Stephanie Hoffmann, a councilor for the District of Coldstream, expressed concerns that the plant may “endanger” the community, the local school, and first responders. “It just goes to show that no matter what kind of promises of safety measures and ‘state of the art’ technology Pinnacle assured council and our community with, the industry of making wood pellets is a continuous risk of fire and explosion.”

Gaby Wickstrom

Leaders of the two largest cities on Vancouver Island are calling on whatever party forms the next provincial government to have a plan in place to help the most vulnerable in their cities and across BC as a whole. Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog say the top election concern in their municipalities and many others across B.C. is providing treatment for people with mental health and addiction issues. …Port McNeil Mayor Gaby Wickstrom said while the issue may not be number one on her constituents list of concerns, it is absolutely a problem in rural northern island communities. …She said top of mind for voters in her municipality is how the next government will implement the recommendations made by the Ministry of Forests in a report issued this month entitled A New Future for Old Forests, that is meant to guide an overhaul of forestry rules

A year ago, two students from the University of Victoria died in a crash when the bus they were on rolled off the side of Bamfield Road. …Forest Safety Council ombudsman Roger Harris wrote in a report about the accident that people should have an expectation that a road that provides the basic services to communities meets a certain safety standard. …The Huu-ay-aht have been asking for years to take over maintenance of the road from Western Forest Products, which has received a small budget to keep the gravel road graded. The Huu-ay-aht have finally gotten their wish. It is our fervent hope that the funding announcement made about Bamfield Road was not simply a pre-election trick.

Sandy McKellar has taken her passion for sewing and turned it into a small business for a terrific cause. Her impressive three-layer and reversible “Tree Frog” masks are now available for purchase at South Delta Heels in Ladner Village with $5 of the proceeds going to the Delta Community Animal Shelter. “I call them tree frog masks because like a tree frog they glom onto your face to keep you safe,” laughed McKellar. …“My work has slowed since the virus outbreak, so I found myself with a little bit of free time on my hands,” she explained. “I’m a collector of antique sewing machines, so it gives me an opportunity to play and tinker with them. It’s actually been really fun for me. Then the opportunity to have them here and knowing there will be people in the local community wearing them and donating to the animal shelter.” McKellar is also creating a line of forestry-themed masks for sale on her Etsy store.

Air quality in British Columbia has improved slightly but an advisory on smoke that drifted north from wildfires in the United States was still in effect on Tuesday. The advisory was initiated on Sept. 8 for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Regional District because of smoke from fires in Washington and Oregon. Metro Vancouver says while the air quality did improve slightly, ground-level smoke still remains and it is expected to remain through the week. It says a change in the weather on Friday may help improve the air quality through the weekend. A fire at a timber wharf continued to burn in New Westminster … causing “considerable local smoke.” Canada Post cancelled delivery services for several parts of British Columbia on Monday because of the wildfire smoke and deliveries remained suspended for some communities on Tuesday including Castlegar, Duncan, the Okanagan Valley, Trail and White Rock.

The viscid layer of smoke that had draped itself over much of southern British Columbia has slowly begun to dissipate thanks to a blast of cool Pacific air. …the air ranked among the worst in the world in recent days…  Smoke caused by the historic wildfires raging south of the border blocked out the sun, helping cast an apocalyptic orange hue over the entire region. Combined with the pandemic, it did feel like the end times. …Scientists have been warning about this day for ages. …Well, we are living it now. The real tragedy? Our political leaders still aren’t prepared to do anything about it. …I’d like to just fault politicians for a gross failure of leadership, but we are all to blame. …Far more needs to be done to clear forests of the brush that fuels many of the blazes. Fines for disobeying campfire edicts should be far more severe… Towns that are particularly vulnerable need better protection…

We’re never out of the woods with wildfire smoke as long as fires are burning anywhere over a wide swath of land. We sometimes forget that wildfires thousands of kilometres away can still have a massive impact on us. It’s been shades of the summers of 2017 and 2018 all over again with the massive influx of smoke from wildfires to the south in Washington, Oregon, and California. Some of these wildfires are the worst ever experienced in those regions. Portland, Ore. had the worst air quality anywhere in the world a few days ago, with Vancouver not far behind. This is very concerning because the air quality in the entire Pacific Northwest is far better than most regions of the world. …People are causing many of [the wildfires] with their careless actions, and we all have to be accountable… The tragic loss of so much land and residences is just too much to bear.

Air quality warnings have been issued for large sections of southern British Columbia as wildfire smoke from the United States is pushed north. Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued air quality warnings for Vancouver Island and parts of British Columbia’s Interior region. The agency has issued air quality alerts for large parts of southern B.C. and the air quality health index lists the central and south Okanagan as “very high risk” followed by Victoria and Saanich on Vancouver Island as “high risk.” …An air quality advisory has also been issued for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Regional District due to fine particulate matter, which is expected to last through at least Tuesday night. …Carol Connolly, with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in the U.S., said the smoke is likely from the Cold Springs and Pearl Hill fires in northern Washington state, which have grown to a combined size of 1,365 square kilometres.

Smoky skies are expected to linger over the West Kootenay-Boundary area into Thursday, according to the latest forecast by Air Quality BC. Longrange smoke from the Doctor Creek and Talbott Creek wildfires in the east Kootenays is being compounded by smoke from wildfires in northern Washington State, according to a Tuesday afternoon news release by the province and health authorities across B.C. The smoke poses a “low health risk” to area residents, a Castlegar station that monitors air quality reported Tuesday, Sept. 8. Interior Health has warned that smoke exposure may pose “health effects” to people with pre-existing health conditions, as well as those suffering from respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19.