Ammonia leak drill completed at Brennan Park

The District of Squamish held an ammonia leak drill at Brennan Park Recreation Park last week, part of new province-wide regulations implemented after an accident that killed three men at an ice rink in Fernie last year.

“This is the first time we’ve done this kind of drill for ammonia specifically,” said the District’s emergency preparedness coordinator Megan Latimer.

Ammonia is a colourless gas used to make ice at skating rinks, in addition to its industrial refrigeration uses.

it has a distinctive odour that is detectable at low concentrations. **

The Squamish drill comes after a hazmat team attended an ammonia leak in Vancouver's West End Community Centre on May 18. The cause of that leak is still being investigated, but there were no injuries reported.

A report on the cause of the deadly leak in Fernie that killed city workers Wayne Hornquist and Lloyd Smith and contractor Jason Podloski has yet to be released.
Since their deaths in October,  Technical Safety BC and WorkSafeBC have implemented new regulations that include simulated leak drills.

On Thursday, staff and users at Brennan Park went through the protocol for a leak in the facility. Squamish Fire and BC ambulance also took part.

Users in the rec centre were asked to “shelter in place” in the Stawamus Activity Room rather than evacuate because ammonia dissipating in the air outside could be an irritant.

“It’s a different approach to say, a fire drill, where you would be evacuating the building and going outside. This is the opposite, we are wanting to keep people inside to keep them safe,” said Latimer.

“We did have to adapt a little bit during the drill, because we didn’t want to keep people cooped up in the Stawamus Activity Room, but obviously in a real situation we’d be much more stringent about keeping people inside and keeping doors closed."
Latimer said overall she was happy with how the drill went.
“I think the response by the fire department has been fantastic considering we have such a small fire department. They were able to get to the scene very quickly, and they know exactly what to do,” she said.

Inside the recreation centre an alarm and blue lights are used to indicate a leak. Additional blue lights have been installed since the incident in Fernie.

An ammonia leak at Brennan Park would potentially impact people within a 300-metre radius of the rec centre, according to a study done by the District.

Latimer said information about sheltering in place, rather than going outside, will be distributed to neighbouring homes detailing what steps to take in the event of a leak.

**Please note that this story has been corrected since it was first posted to note that ammonia has a distinctive odour that is detectable at low concentrations.The first version said that it was odourless.