Brian Humphreys still thinks about that day 19 years ago. He was the safety supervisor during the fatal Aug. 8, 2000 smelter explosion at Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting (HBM&S). His book on the subject, No Smoke Without Fire; A Recipe for Disaster, is available at Northern Rainbow’s End and online.
The book details his perspective on the day of the disaster, and what lessons can be taken away from workplace accidents.
Humphreys is already getting reactions to his work. He said when someone heard he had written a book about the explosion, they asked “Who do you blame?”
Humphreys, taken aback, said he replied that he didn’t blame anyone, but upon reflection, changed his mind.
“I thought afterwards, ‘That wasn't true.’ I did blame somebody,” he said.
“I blamed myself.”
Humphreys, who spent nearly 50 years working in heavy industry, emphasized the message of the book is in the subtitle, suggesting no disaster can be blamed on just one factor.
“The reason I use that term was that no single thing is makes up a disaster,” he said.
“It's usually a combination of different events that line up. You take one of those things out of it, and the event wouldn't happen.”
Humphreys said he started writing the book when he had trouble vocalizing what he was feeling after the explosion. He decided to turn those “back of the drawer” writings into a manuscript.
“You go back to the event and you think to yourself, ‘What didn't I see? What could I have done? Why wasn't it me?’” he asked.
“You’re questioning yourself all the time.”
Humphreys said for weeks after the explosion, he was so shaken he couldn’t even talk to his wife about it. When he did finally seek out help, he was scared.
“When I went to counselling... I was looking to see if anybody could see me going in,” he said.
“I was looking when I came out to see if anybody noticed that I’d been. I felt embarrassed. I felt ashamed that I was even going to counselling in the first place.”
Humphreys said one of the messages of the book is to seek out help if needed.
Every fatality at a Flin Flon mine is included in the last section of Humphreys’ book. When he opens it up to that section, he points to the final two entries, and notes the four year gap in between fatal disasters. At the time, it was the longest Flin Flon has gone without a fatality. The explosion 19 years ago was the last fatal disaster in Flin Flon.
Humphreys noted that some workers inside the mine were born after the last fatality.
“This book is to remind them of their vulnerability and that the workplace can be a dangerous place,” he said.
“It’s only dangerous when you don’t have things in place to make it safe. For example, a hazardous product is only hazardous if you don’t read and follow the instructions the label.”
Humphreys worked with Rick Johnson, an editor based in Winnipeg Beach, to help him turn therapeutic writings into a cohesive narrative. One of the early decisions Humphreys had to make was who the book would be written for.
“If I was writing it for just people that work at Hudbay, I wouldn't have to be very descriptive in what I was talking about,” he said.
“If I’m writing it for the general public, I’d have to be too descriptive and the people that work at Hudbay would get easily bored with it, because they knew what I was talking about... There had to be a balance of the use of technical terms. You don’t want to lose people in the jargon.”
In the end, Humphreys looked to appeal to a broader audience.
“I'm hoping that when people read it, whether it's a young person going into a job or somebody who's already doing a job, they take a look at all the different things that can cause an accident,” he said.
“Maybe take a step back and take a look at what they're doing a little bit more closely and think. I almost got killed three times because of the things I didn't know. I included that in the book. Everybody's vulnerable.”
After completing a first draft, Humphreys sent it out to friends and family for a test reading.
“I have a sister who is two years older than me, and I wanted her to read it because she's got no experience in heavy industry,” he said.
“I wanted her to get it. If she could read it and understand the detail, that would give me an indication that the general public would would be to know what I’m saying.”
Humphreys also implored anyone who is looking to move into a supervisor role read his book.
“The burden of supervision carries a lot of weight,” he said.
“Especially in heavy industry, because they're not only held responsible, they’re held accountable.”
