Ammonia safeguards the rule at Vancouver rinks
Ammonia plants and safety equipment in Vancouver’s ice rinks are regularly inspected and upgraded to help avoid disasters like the fatal leak Tuesday in Fernie.
On Wednesday at Hillcrest Rink, park board recreation director Donnie Rosa said there are strict regulations and standards set by WorkSafeBC and Technical Safety B.C. for how ammonia plants are maintained and levels monitored.
Anhydrous ammonia — a clear, pungent liquid or gas — is an inexpensive refrigerant with superior heat transfer properties used widely in commercial cold-storage facilities and hockey rinks.
But it is also highly toxic, with inhalation potentially causing respiratory distress, unconsciousness, skin or eye irritation, freezing injuries or death.
In Vancouver, trained staff must stay on-site when any rink’s refrigeration system is operated, and all rinks are required to have an alarmed monitoring system and emergency procedures in place, Rosa said.
“Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, we know what’s going on with our system,” Rosa said.
Engineers at Vancouver rinks wear personal protective equipment when they enter rooms where plants are contained. Each has their own face mask and wears a personal detector around their neck that beeps and flashes if ammonia concentration rises.
Park board maintenance tech Eamon McGinley said detection systems — hulking monitors kept just outside the plants — provide readouts from a pair of sensors which will trigger an emergency exhaust fan if a breach occurs.
Safety equipment is calibrated and tested throughout the year.
While ammonia gas related fatalities are rare in B.C., the number of injuries — particularly at ice rinks — remains fairly high.
Of the 40 ammonia leaks from refrigeration systems investigated between 2007 and 2015 in the province, the province’s safety authority says 10 resulted in the injuries of 34 people — and most occurred at arenas. That number could be higher though, as Technical Safety B.C. notes that injuries included in its report are only those received from operators or first responders following the incident.
The report found seven of the 10 incidents resulting in injuries occurred at arenas or recreation centres. It also found the top reason for the potentially deadly gas leaks was equipment failure, followed by lack of training for the maintenance crew.
Included in the list was a high-profile incident that occurred at an ice rink in 2011. In that case, Olympic athlete Karen Magnussen was left permanently disabled after inhaling ammonia.
Magnussen, the 1973 world champion women’s singles figure skater, was teaching some young skaters at the North Shore Winter Club, when she was hit by a blast of ammonia from the club’s refrigeration unit.