In response to the tragedy at the Fernie arena, where three men were killed by an ammonia leak, the Technical Safety BC has issued new regulations for those who operate facilities such as arenas and curling rinks.
The scope of the safety order is applied to all refrigeration plants that are installed in a facility that is classified as public assembly occupancy.
This safety order specifically applies to refrigeration plants that utilize ammonia as a refrigerant, that exceed 50 kW capacity, and that are subject to the provisions of section 45 of the Power Engineers, Boiler, Pressure Vessel and Refrigeration Safety Regulation as a Continuous Supervision Status Plant.
An owner of a plant within the scope of this order must have the plant under constant supervision by an appropriately qualified person, that is in control of the plant and present on site within the immediate vicinity of the plant at all times when the plant is in operation. The order goes into effect on January 19, 2018.
Full details of the order are available here.
In Kimberley, Manager of Parks, Recreation and Facilities, Brett Clark, says that city facilities are outside the scope of the order and therefore they don’t anticipate any problems with staffing.
“Both the curing rink and Marysville Arena are outside the scope of the Safety Order because both of those refrigeration systems are under 50w,” Clark said.
“The Civic Centre is over 50kw, but we have comprehensive Plant Supervision Program (Risk Assessed) safety program in place.
“Our Plant Supervision Program covers things such as having someone in the building for a minimum of 8 consecutive hours a day, signage, qualifications, operating schedules and a wide variety of other conditions that we have met.”
