More robust rules are coming to regulate combustible dust in B.C. workplaces, more than 14 years after two separate deadly explosions in northern B.C. sawmills were fueled by wood dust. In 2012, the explosions in Burns Lake and Prince George led to four deaths and over 40 injuries at the Babine Forest Products and Lakeland Mills. The explosions were fueled by wood dust dispersed in the air, according to WorkSafeBC reports. …WorkSafeBC, the province’s workplace regulator, passed amendments to its regulations in November 2025 that it says will require employers to “implement more robust measures to control and manage the accumulation of all types of combustible dusts.” …”The fact that it took 14 years to get to this point, from our point of view … it is an excessive amount of time to get here, we believe,” Ed Kent, the health safety environment co-ordinator for USW District 3 added.