Deadly B.C. sawmill explosion causes estimated loss of between $25 million and $100 million

The majority owner of a Babine Forest Products sawmill that exploded and burned down in Burns Lake, B.C. last weekend, killing two, confirmed it is insured for the mill.
Hampton Affiliates, based in Portland, Oregon, owns 90% of the sawmill, which exploded on Jan. 20, killing two and injuring 19. Media reports cite company officials as estimating the loss to be anywhere between $25 million and $100 million.
The CEO of Hampton Affiliates, Steve Zika, addressed a community meeting on the incident, held in Burns Lake on Jan. 23, to discuss the fire and its consequences.
In that meeting, Zika is quoted by HQPrinceGeorge.com as saying the company was in touch with its (unnamed) insurers about the fire.
“The mill is covered for insurance, several layers of insurance,” he is quoted as saying. “They have to get onto the site and do their investigation, they can’t do that until the Work Safe people are gone. That will happen, they will go through a process of determining an amount to be reimbursed.”
Zika said it might be a matter of months before the insurable amount is determined.
In the meantime, the company has not announced any plans to rebuild the sawmill, saying it has to determine first whether the future timber stock in the area makes it viable to rebuild the sawmill.
The RCMP and the B.C. Coroners Service are still investigating the cause of the fire. Officials have been quoted as saying it is difficult to access the site, because fires were still erupting and also partly due to the scale of the devastation.