The two men still missing after an explosion at a sawmill in Burns Lake has been identified.
Carl Charlie and Robert Luggi are still unaccounted for.
Meanwhile, a machine operator at the mill is speaking out, claiming the disaster could have been prevented.
“I honestly don’t believe that sawmill should have been running that week,” Robert Hansen says, adding temperatures had dipped to -46.
“Pipes were froze, water lines were froze, who’s to say the gas lines weren’t freezing, and as everything warmed up, everything that had backed up probably just let loose.”
Hansen claims the working conditions were dangerous as forklifts and other machines broke down.
He adds many employees suspect a natural gas leak caused the blaze that ripped through their mill Friday.
Nineteen people were injured – four critically.
Even people who don’t work mill are feeling the pinch of losing the facility.
Jason Benson’s family business has a contract with Babine to plough their snow.
“Basically, if it doesn’t get rebuilt, it’s going to probably be the end of a business for my dad, you know? Built up for the last 20-something years.”
Benson says almost everyone in town was somehow connected to the mill and if it isn’t replaced – it could ruin the village’s economy.
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