A man in his 40s is dead after a workplace incident on a forestry operation on northern Vancouver Island.
B.C. Coroners Service and WorkSafe B.C. were notified Sunday of the death, which happened at a logging site near Holberg.
The Forestry Ministry said the logger worked for Lemare Lake Logging, a company based in Port McNeill. According to the company’s website, it has a team of 400 forestry workers and has been operating on northern Vancouver Island and B.C.’s central coast for more than 30 years. Richmond Plywood Ltd. holds the forest licence.
The remote village of Holberg is accessed by a 50-kilometre gravel logging road west of Port Hardy.
Neither the B.C. Coroners Service nor WorkSafe B.C. has released the cause of death, but both agencies are investigating. WorkSafe B.C.’s investigations team is collecting information at the site, according to spokesman Craig Fitzsimmons.
WorkSafe’s investigation will try to determine the cause of the incident and contributing factors to prevent similar incidents in the future, Fitzsimmons said.
Last year, five logging workers were killed in workplace accidents.
