Last year, in British Columbia, Canada, there was a major combustible dust explosion that killed one man and injured 24 workers, nine of them with serious or critical injuries. It launched a fireball more than 200 feet high, according to reports… and alarmingly, this was the second lumber mill explosion and fire in four months.
And, in 2011, OSHA fined a New Hampshire wood pellet manufacturer almost $150,000 because of “repeated and serious violations” leading to two combustible dust explosions since 2008. In one of the explosions and fires, more than 100 firefighters from 14 nearby towns were called in to fight the blaze, which took 15 hours to extinguish.