DSS 002: Lessons Learned from Two Sawdust Fires at a New Brunswick Lumber Mill (With Christian Fournier)

In this episode of the Dust Safety Science Podcast, Christian Fournier, Safety and Training Coordinator at Fornebu Lumber in Miramichie, New Brunswick, shares lessons learned from two sawdust fire incidents in early 2018.

On June 1st, a fire broke out in the planer mill at the facility. Although this was quickly extinguished by workers, a second fire occurred outside at the base of the sawdust collector. This second fire was ignited by embers which had been sucked through the dust collection system.

In the podcast episode Christian shares several lessons learned from the incidents, the importance of dust safety training in running a clean facility, how Fornebu uses software for scheduling maintenance activities, and why sharing close calls is important to wood working industries.

Lessons Learned From the Sawdust Fires

Although we discuss several key points in the podcast episode some of the main lessons include:

Need to ensure fire hydrants are de-winterized each year (done with a reoccurring work order and check).
Enhanced preventative maintenance was needed for the planer. The routine maintenance they were doing at the time did not stop the fire.
A preventative maintenance work order was created to clear sawdust from the bottom of the dust collector in the company project management system
The lumber mill is now reviewing the dust collection system overall looking to see if a new system is needed.

Importance of Dust Safety Training

When asked about the cleanliness of the lumber mill in a video posted by Canadian Forest Industries, Christian mentions the importance of having facility specific safety training. The educational courses he completed allowed him to communicate the hazards of combustible dust more effectively to his staff and managers. Bringing in outside consultants also showed them what pieces of equipment required special attention and allowed them to keep a clean lumber mill, although he admits it does take a lot of effort!

Maintenance Management Software

Christian also mentions how the lumber mill uses scheduling software to organize work orders and reoccurring preventative maintenance activities. Specifically, he mentions that a major cleaning of the planer (above and beyond the regular cleaning) and cleaning of the dust collection platform are importance maintenance tasks that need to be included.

Closing Thoughts

It is obvious in the interview that Christian has a passion for ensuring safety within the forestry industries and other industries he has worked in during his career. In closing, he calls for other companies and industries to also share their close-call, near-misses or combustible dust incidents as it is important to ensure the overall safety of the workers involved. He also suggests that those who are interested in a career in safety should get involved with relevant associations such as the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering and American Society of Safety Professionals.

I want to take this last chance to thank Christian and Fornebu Lumber for the work they are doing improving safety inside and outside of their facility. I also want to congratulate Christian on his recent award as 2018 Safety Professional of the Year for the New Brunswick chapter of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering!