Following an ammonia leak at the Fernie arena that resulted in three fatalities, our regional district is reviewing its own safety procedures.
The Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) operates both the arena at the Castlegar and District Community Complex and the Pioneer Arena, as well as facilities in Nelson and Creston.
All except the Pioneer Arena have been risk-assessed by the Provincial Safety Authority, according to a statement that the RDCK released Thursday.
“The Pioneer Arena in Castlegar does not fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial Safety Standards Act — Power Engineers, Boiler, Pressure Vessel and Refrigeration Safety Regulation due to a smaller refrigeration plant size. However, the chiller has been recently replaced, plant room has had safety improvements, regular maintenance is performed and safeties are in place on the refrigeration plant,” read the release.
In the facilities that do fall under the act, the refrigeration plant rooms are isolated from the rest of the building. The plant rooms are monitored at all times, are alarmed and are operated through direct digital control. They are “designed to discharge an ammonia leak to the atmosphere to ensure that the ammonia is dispersed in a safe manner.” The refrigeration systems have code required safeties, designed to ensure safe operation of equipment.
And the facilities are staffed by personnel who are qualified and trained as per the provincial Safety Standards Act.
But even though the RDCK says it’s confident its facilities are safe, the incident in Fernie has prompted district staff to review safety procedures.
“We have a very robust safety program at the district, so they’ll just be reviewing their safety procedures and just making sure that everybody is up to date and, you know, when you have these kinds of incidents, it’s just the first place to go,” explains Joe Chirico, general manager of community services. “Review the processes that you have in place and make sure that everybody is really in tune with them.”
Chirico also says that the safety procedures are normally reviewed on a regular basis, particularly at the beginning of each refrigeration cycle — though when that occurs varies by facility.
The RDCK is also having all arena facilities re-inspected by a third party.
“Part of that is just getting ourselves into the queue in case there’s something that’s found,” said Chirico.
“We don’t know what happened in Fernie, other than we know what the result is,” he added. “So until those investigations are done, we don’t know if there’s anything that we need to address, but just when something like that happens, it’s always a good time to say, ‘Okay, let’s just take a look again.’ We have done this numerous times. We’re constantly upgrading the plants when there are different ideas about what could be done to make sure that the systems are safer.”