Location: Wondering when # became hashtag and not a number sign.
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3 dead in Fernie arena ammonia leak
Bizarre story....wonder if it is related to the high winds somehow?
Quote:
The City of Fernie has confirmed three people have died from possible exposure to ammonia after emergency crews were called to the Fernie Memorial Arena for reports of an ammonia leak just before noon on Tuesday.
WorkSafeBC says it's believed the three were workers at the arena.
In a statement, the City of Fernie says all homes and businesses in the downtown area between Ninth and 13th streets on Highway 3 and Sixth Avenue have been evacuated.
Wow, that's a crazy story. Hits a little too close to home. Up until last year I worked at an arena, and just today there was an ammonia breach at our local arena. We had alarms and lots of safety procedures in place for these situations, but I guess things can still go wrong.
Very sad to hear. Ammonia leaks can be very dangerous if people aren’t properly trained in the proper actions to take. Not having visible a windsock can be the difference between life and death. Condolences to the families of the victims, hopefully they can find some peace.
Some of my co-workers are cross-trained from pools to arenas with the City of Calgary. My thoughts and condolences go out to their families and co-workers.
Residents of a British Columbia city could soon be back on home ice, thanks to the NHL's Calgary Flames.
The hockey team's charitable arm, the Calgary Flames Foundation, has donated an outdoor skating rink to Fernie while the city awaits the reopening of its arena following an ammonia leak on Oct. 17 that left three men dead.
Organizer Chuck Shoesmith of the Fernie Lions Club says the donation comes with a regulation-sized set of boards.
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Ammonia leaks can be awful and I'm sure a horrible way to die. In my Hazwoper training we watched a dashcam video of an officer who tries to save the driver of an overturned ammonia truck. Tries to run through the cloud of ammonia.
He never made it through or out and all you heard was his breathing slowing down until finally nothing. Let me tell you it was a very powerful lesson on why you don't run into things without proper understanding and planning (not saying that is what happened to these folks...consider it a public service announcement not to put yourself in danger).
Condolences to their loved ones and kudos to the Flames organization.
Bumping this thread. WorkSafeC inspected 181 facilities in BC (not all of them arenas it appears) with over 1100 deficiencies noted. Sounds like most were not critical but some of the fixes are going to be pretty expensive, especially for smaller communities that don't have that kind of cash.
Just brutally shocking how so many safety measures were ignored and safe operating and safe work procedures were not followed. Even the last possible measures of protection that EACH individual could have employed were voluntarily dismissed for some reason - that being basic PPE, atmospheric detectors, and the right to say NO to unsafe work.
Thanks for sharing. Hopefully others will learn from this tragedy, that doesn’t need to be repeated. Again.
Just brutally shocking how so many safety measures were ignored and safe operating and safe work procedures were not followed. Even the last possible measures of protection that EACH individual could have employed were voluntarily dismissed for some reason - that being basic PPE, atmospheric detectors, and the right to say NO to unsafe work.
Thanks for sharing. Hopefully others will learn from this tragedy, that doesn’t need to be repeated. Again.
All safety incidents are very similar. Operating procedures, ignored alarms, deferred maintenance, normalization of risks, bad decision after bad decision cumulating in death.
I actually know some of the first responders who were the first in after the incident. Needless to say, they were impacted pretty hard mentally after this.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Huge credit to WorkSafeBC for putting out videos like this. This type of awareness is actually meaningful and can save lives.
A few years ago an electrical engineer tech for the last company I worked for almost died (left with severe electrical burns) after an incident at southcenter mall. Maybe if videos like this existed in Alberta we wouldn't have had another (different) contractors employee die in a separate electrical incident. There was one severe incident and one fatality at that mall in a few years span.
3 dead in Fernie arena ammonia leak
