Inside this issue

From the Editors

Lessons From Devastation

There are some editorials that practically write themselves. This isn’t one of them. Like some of you, we read about the May fire-explosion at the Robbins Lumber sawmill in Maine with a heavy heart. Weeks later came the news that co-owner Alden Robbins had succumbed to his injuries, bringing the death toll to three. The news of his death was after another devastating headline in May: 11 were killed in a white liquor tank explosion at a packaging plant in Longview, Wash. Just last month OSHA released its final report regarding the 2025 fire-explosion in Nebraska at Horizon Biofuels that claimed the lives of six, including two young girls.

The shocking reminder: These were all different facilities, different wood production processes, but all had the same unimaginable outcome.

As editors, we spend much of our time writing about new pellet plants, dryer technologies, biomass boilers, emissions controls, fuel handling systems and ways to make wood residuals more valuable. We highlight innovation because innovation keeps this industry moving forward.

But those stories only matter because of the people behind them.

The operators monitoring dryers through the night. The control room always having eyes on everything. The maintenance crews rebuilding equipment during outages. The electricians troubleshooting a sensor. The loader operators feeding fuel yards. Maintenance guys getting a call because something “just doesn’t sound right.” They are the reason this industry exists.

Wood bioenergy is built on materials that are incredibly valuable—but also inherently hazardous. Fine wood dust, dry fiber, high temperatures, rotating equipment, confined spaces, stored energy and combustible materials are part of everyday operations. Most days, those risks are managed successfully because thousands of professionals follow procedures, watch out for one another and refuse to cut corners.

The difficult truth about our industry is that catastrophic incidents are rarely random. They remind us how quickly routine can become a tragedy and how dangerous familiarity can be if it turns into complacency.

We don’t yet know every lesson these recent incidents will teach the industry. But there is one lesson we don’t need an investigation to confirm: Safety cannot become routine. Every safety meeting matters, every near miss that gets reported instead of ignored matters. Cleaning up the dust, whether the old fashioned way with a broom in a small area, or engaging with new technologies plant-wide to mitigate dust, matters.

Technology continues to improve. Automation removes people from hazardous areas. Detection systems are becoming smarter. Predictive maintenance is helping facilities identify problems earlier than ever before. But no technology can replace a workplace where people feel responsible not only for their own safety, but for the person working beside them.

The bioenergy industry has always been defined by resilience. We find value where others see waste. We transform residuals into renewable energy. We solve problems every day.

If these recent tragedies inspire one supervisor to pause a start-up because something doesn’t look right, one operator to report an unusual vibration, or one maintenance manager to move up an inspection, then perhaps some measure of good can come from an otherwise heartbreaking season.

From Left: Jessica Johnson, Managing Editor; Dan Shell, Senior Editor; Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief; David Abbott, Senior Associate Editor