An explosion at a sawmill in central British Columbia late Friday night has left 19 people injured, police and hospital officials say.

Photo: CTV

An explosion at a sawmill in Burns Lake Friday night has left at least 29 people injured, some with severe burns, and three people unaccounted for.

Police say workers reported the smell of gasoline just before the blast at the Babine Forest Products sawmill around 8:15 p.m.

"I was one of the lucky ones as I was working down the other end of the mill. There is a huge fire at the mill ... I don't know if everyone is okay or even where half the crew is," an unnamed employee of the mill told the Lakes District News.

The mill, located just east of Burns Lake, about 220 kilometres west of Prince George was still in flames Saturday morning, though the fire was under control. There are 250 employees at the mill and 30 were on shift at the time, Smith said.

Steve Raper, a spokesman for the Northern Health Authority, said Saturday four people were released from hospital, but the other 15 had to remain.

He said hospitals from around the region had been mobilized to look after the injured. He wouldn't comment on whether anyone was dead.

"We don't know that yet. We just treated people that have come into the facility. The RCMP and the fire (service) may be able to determine if there were fatalities. At this point the 19 we treated were living."

Raper said from what he understood, it was a range of injuries.

"Burns, up to and including critical but no confirmation on what those numbers are and what that exactly is."

Smith also wouldn't comment on any fatalities.

"Once that fire has been taken care of we can enter into the building and do our investigation fully."

Rayanne Charlie lives near the mill, which is on land leased from the Burns Lake Indian Band.

"As far as we know there are still two unaccounted for and they're both First Nation," she said.

"There's been a lot of people with really serious injuries. It's been a pretty rough night."

Charlie said she's been up all night with her husband, who is a former chief of the band, and band members have been coming in and out of her house. Everyone is trying to help other community members, she said.

Charlie said she's heard so many different stories about the possible smell of gas, but it's hard to know what to believe.

"It's difficult to get to the bottom of it," she said, adding the explosion caused the lights in her home to flicker out.

An unnamed employee of the mill told the Lakes District News the explosion was huge.

"It was so loud," said the employee.

"About half the crew has been seriously injured. . .I was one of the lucky ones as I was working down the other end of the mill. ... I don't know if everyone is okay or even where half the crew is."

Megan Benson, 24, lives about 10 minutes from the mill.

Though she didn't hear the explosion, she told The Canadian Press in an interview Saturday: "I could smell it from our house. And you could see the smoke."

She said several of her friends were at the mill at the time of the blast. While no deaths have been reported so far, many are injured, some badly, she said.

"Some were able to phone from the hospital, others weren't as lucky," she said.

Emergency services from neighbouring communities were brought in to deal with the flames.

Burns Lake Mayor Luke Strimbold said the community is "in the midst of dealing with a serious incident.

"This is a difficult time for our community and we need to pull together to ensure we provide the best support possible," he said in a statement.

"Every individual, their families, and all those involved are in our thoughts."

Benson said alongside worries about the wounded came those about the mill itself, a strong presence in the community of about 10,000. About a quarter of the town is connected to the mill in some fashion, she added.

"People are scared," she said. "That's our livelihood ... that's how we feed our family."

The mill is owned by Babine Forest Products, which is a joint venture between Portland, Ore.-based forest company Hampton Affiliates and the Burns Lake Native Development Corporation.

The provincial Forest Practices Board conducted an audit of the company last fall and said in a news release from earlier this month that the company "showed a high standard of forest operations."

The audit dealt with the company's woodland operations. The news release made no mention of the sawmill.