This week’s fatal shooting of two Western Forest Products (WFP) employees and wounding of two others is “a terrible tragedy that saddens us all,” says a Squamish-based employee of the forest products company.
The firm that operates the sawmill in Nanaimo where the tragedy occurred on Wednesday (April 30) used to operate the Woodfibre pulp mill on the shores of Howe Sound. In 2006, WFP closed the 94-year-old mill that employed some 323 workers.
WFP still owns the 86-hectare Woodfibre site, which is the subject of a pending sale to a company that wants to put a liquefied natural gas facility there.
Rick Kormendy, WFP’s manager for the Woodfibre site, on Thursday (May 1) said some of the Woodfibre workers transferred to Nanaimo after the local mill closed. But none of those involved in Wednesday’s incident are former Squamish-area employees of the company, he said.
Kormendy said he’s the only regular, fulltime WFP employee remaining in Squamish. A handful of others — he couldn’t recall how many — work on contract to WFP as tree fallers and such, he said.
Kormendy said he was shocked to hear of the shooting.
“Although it’s a fairly big company, it’s just like a family and this is a terrible tragedy that saddens us all,” Kormendy said of Wednesday morning’s shooting incident.
Kevin Douglas Addison, 47, a former employee at the Nanaimo mill, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the incident.
Michael John Lunn, 61, and Fred James McEachern, 53, died in the shooting. Tony Sudar, a company vice-president, and Earl Kelly were both injured and remained in hospital as of Thursday, CBC News reported.
