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Kelowna  

Could it happen here?

Arena management at the City of Kelowna will be monitoring the outcome of investigations into the tragic ammonia accident that killed three workers at the Fernie arena Tuesday.

Building services manager Martin Johansen says he was as shocked as anyone that the accident resulted in the death of two city workers and one employee of a refrigeration company hired to do maintenance at the arena.

Johansen says he believes it was a catastrophic event that occurred which released the ammonia, making it , as he described, difficult for anyone to get away from.

"We've been discussing this all day. Hopefully, there are some lessons that can be learned. I can't remember anything like this happening, at least in an arena facility," said Johansen.

"We want to know what happened. Maybe there's some new directives and measures put in place to make sure this type of accident can't happen in the future."

Johansen says ammonia leaks do happen at arenas in Kelowna from time to time, in fact, Rutland Arena was evacuated about three weeks ago for an ammonia leak.

However, he says most of those are minor in nature.

"It may be once every couple of years we have a leak we need to deal with.

"As far as I can recollect, they've all been minor. A gasket leak you might have on a radiator on your car where there's a bit of water coming out because the gasket dried out."

Johansen says the ice plants themselves at both Rutland and Memorial arenas are as old as the buildings, but the compressor are rebuilt annually and other components are replaced at the end of their theoretical life cycle, usually 20 years.

Ammonia is highly toxic, and Johansen says it is never circulated in any public areas of the arenas.

"It's contained to special machinery room."



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