Firm fined $84K for safety violations at Logan Lake wildfire clean-up

An environmental management company removing wildfire-damaged trees in Logan Lake has been fined $84,000 for a series of safety violations.

According to a Jan. 31, WorkSafeBC decision, Asplundh Canada failed to ensure a risk assessment was done by a qualified person before workers were exposed to dangerous trees.

The company also failed to provide its workers with the information, instruction, training, and supervision necessary to ensure their health and safety.

"The firm also failed to ensure sufficient undercuts were used, and failed to ensure felled trees did not brush standing trees," reads the decision.

WorkSafeBC says these were all repeated violations.

The company also failed to ensure workers did not fell trees unless qualified to do so.

"All of these were high-risk violations," the decision says.

Asplundh Canada was fined $83,932 by WorkSafeBC for the firm's failing practices.


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Ben Bulmer

After a decade of globetrotting, U.K. native Ben Bulmer ended up settling in Canada in 2009. Calling Vancouver home he headed back to school and studied journalism at Langara College. From there he headed to Ottawa before winding up in a small anglophone village in Quebec, where he worked for three years at a feisty English language newspaper. Ben is always on the hunt for a good story, an interesting tale and to dig up what really matters to the community.