KAMLOOPS — It’s Arena Safety Week in Kamloops.
From February 3 to 9 the City is putting an emphasis on staff safety procedures in all of the city’s rinks.
Safety is taken very seriously at the Sandman Centre, especially behind the scenes in the ammonia room.
“We do maintenance on the plant, we do upgrades as required, staff training, staff have to be certified as well by Technical Safety BC,” said Arena Operations Supervisor Francois Chasse.
Before even entering the room, employees have to have the proper safety equipment.
Anhydrous ammonia is commonly used to cool ice surfaces, but if there is a leak the gas is extremely dangerous.
In 2017, an ammonia leak at a facility in Fernie killed three workers.
Arena workers in Kamloops are confident that all maintenance concerns in this city are dealt with in a timely manner.
“There’s meter hours on the compressors and we do the maintenance on the compressors according to those hours on the compressors,” Chasse said. “Also, when it comes to life expectancy of the equipment we have a range that it has to be replaced in a certain amount of time and we’re doing that.”
At the Sandman Centre, the ammonia plant is checked every two hours in a work shift.
Once a month a bump test is performed. This ensures the ammonia monitoring alarm is working correctly.
“There’s a sensor in the room,” Chasse said. “We’ll make sure that the alarm would go off at 25 parts per million, make sure the lights are working.”
If there ever was a real ammonia leak, Chasse says the public would not be at risk, as the gas would be contained to the ammonia room.
