Olympian recalls close call with ammonia leak
Canadian Olympic silver medallist and former world champion figure skater Karen Magnussen can still feel the spot deep in her chest where an ammonia leak burned her lungs six years ago, leaving her disabled and unable to go back to an ice rink to teach the sport she loves.
Magnussen, 65, said the deaths of three men after an ammonia leak at the Fernie arena on Tuesday is a horrible tragedy. She urged communities across Canada to ensure arena cooling systems are regularly maintained and inspected.
“We’re talking about children,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Langley. “Not to mention all the people who are there watching. This should be a priority. This is our national sport, for God’s sakes. People live in arenas in Canada.”
Magnussen said she was a victim of an ammonia gas leak in November 2011 in North Vancouver at the North Shore Winter Club where she was teaching skating lessons.
“An ammonia leak happened, same as in Fernie, and I was very lucky to not be dead and end up the same as those poor souls in Fernie,” she said.
Magnussen said she walked out of her office at the club straight into a cloud of ammonia gas. She said she saw arena officials waving at her, but did not know they were warning her to stay away. No alarm was sounding, she said. “Now for the last six years my health has deteriorated,” Magnussen said.
“I have lung infections. I cough all the time. It drives my family crazy, but I can’t help it. “I can’t even go in a rink.” Magnussen said when she walked into the hallway and smelled the ammonia, she instantly thought about the children and ran to the dressing rooms in the arena. Emergency officials were already there and had gotten everybody out safely.
She said she was the only victim of the gas leak. “It burns your throat,” she said. “I have burned my vocal cords. My lungs were burnt. I get lung infections. I can feel the same spot where the burning was in my lungs every time I get sick, which is often.”
Magnussen said her life-altering experience should have served as a warning across Canada about the dangers.
“I just feel they didn’t take it seriously enough,” she said. “But if they don’t, a major tragedy will happen in Canada. We have way too many people who are in arenas every single day from six in the morning until midnight.”
In Fernie, residents who were forced from their homes because of the leak still don’t know when an evacuation order will be lifted.
A total of 95 people who live around the Fernie Memorial Arena were forced from their homes for safety reasons and are being put up in a local hotel.
Fire Chief Ted Ruiter said the arena remains closed as experts continue to try to determine whether it’s safe to enter again.
Ruiter says an emergency response team that includes experts from several private companies continues to work around the clock and has obtained some samples that are being tested.
“It’s really important to understand the magnitude of this process and safety remains our number one concern,” Ruiter said in a statement on Saturday.
“While we continue to make progress, every step along the way must be done precisely, which takes time.”
Ruiter is asking the residents who had to leave their homes to be patient and said that getting them home safely remains a top priority.