Tragedies Felt Across All Wood Products Sectors

Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-In-Chief

In the Update news section in this issue we report briefly on two developments that occurred at non-panel mills, but certainly hitting close enough to home—a sawmill and a pulp & paper mill located on opposite sides of the United States. Brethren sectors in the wood products industry you might say to our panel sector.

A fire in the shavings silo area on the morning of May 15 at Robbins Lumber in Searsmont, Maine apparently, and unfortunately, allowed enough time for firefighters and mill personnel to begin to attend to, before the silo exploded. A young firefighter was killed. Two family owners of the sawmill, and one of their daughters, were sent to the burn unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, where as of mid-June they were still being treated but showing progress and expected to return to the family business. Numerous other firefighters and first responders were also injured.

Certainly this does hit close to home with panel mills, where raw material and residue silos have long been part of the infrastructure as they are in sawmills.

The second incident occurred at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging plant in Longview, Wash. early on the morning of May 26. The massive white liquor tank, said to hold hundreds of thousands of gallons of white liquor, imploded and collapsed, spewing its solution and debris, and killing 11 employees who were reportedly gathered nearby during a shift break. (White liquor is used in the kraft pulping process to break down lignin and cellulose.) Photos of the plant grounds following the catastrophe look like a war-torn zone.

Investigations were continuing at both plants as of this writing into what went wrong and into the safety and prevention mechanisms and procedures in place.

On the outside, it’s easy to point fingers and say well obviously this wouldn’t have happened if safety was a priority. But as all of us know in the wood products industry, it’s not always so black and white. Maybe a safety mechanism was in place, and where it was supposed to be, and doing what it was supposed to do, but maybe the accident entered a new territory so to speak where the prevention wasn’t as yet defined. Safety checklists enlarge over time, as they should.

If I’m driving down the street and a big tree limb comes off and rams through my hood and seriously injures me, who’s to blame? Is it the car manufacturer because of the construction of the hood? Is it the last arborist who did- n’t cut back the limb enough off the road? Is it the former homeowner who planted that tree too close to the road 45 years ago? Is it me, for knowing that limb has been hanging over that road for a long time, but here I’m driving underneath it every day on the way home from work?

In all wood products mills, danger lurks everywhere, despite the best of intentions and procedures in place. And I’m somebody who only walks through a mill now and then. What about so many of you who are in it every day?

Safety doesn’t come easily. That’s a certainty.