Jim Dinwoodie, director of operational services with the Town of Osoyoos, was shocked and heartbroken to learn that one of the men killed by an ammonia leak at the Fernie Memorial Arena was an employee he had supervised. (Richard McGuire file photo)
Town of Osoyoos operations manager Jim Dinwoodie said he was shocked and heartbroken when he found out one of the three men killed in the tragic ammonia leak accident at the Fernie Memorial Arena last week was a worker he supervised while working as a parks and recreation manager in the tight-knit East Kootenay town.
“I did know one of the senior operators who was killed … it’s just a terrible tragedy and very sad,” said Dinwoodie, who worked in Fernie from 2006 to 2012. “I worked in the operations department, but was moved to parks and recreation and was in charge of the arena. For a brief time I was the boss of one of the men killed. I called a couple of friends I still have in Fernie and no one would talk to me about the other arena employee who was killed, so I’m honestly not sure if he worked for me during my time there.
“Everyone in the community is very upset.”
The other man killed was a contractor from Calgary who worked for CIMCO, the large contracting company that helps install ice plants at hundreds of Canadian arenas.
Ammonia is commonly used in mechanical refrigeration systems in its liquid form, but it becomes a gas once it is released into the air.
The BC Coroners Service confirmed the identities of three men who died after a workplace incident at the Fernie Memorial Arena on Oct. 17, 2017. They were Wayne Allan Hornquist, 59, and Lloyd Stewart Smith, 52, both of Fernie; and Jason Donovan Podloski, 46, of Turner Valley, Alberta.
Hornquist and Smith were employed by the Town of
Fernie, while Podloski worked for CIMCO, one of Canada’s largest refrigeration contractors.
“I knew Mr. Hornquist … he was a senior arena operator … a very well respected and well-liked employee. It’s just so tragic.”
The BC Coroners Service continues to investigate the circumstances of these deaths to establish the facts and to identify possible recommendations to prevent future, similar incidents. Other investigating agencies include WorkSafeBC, Technical Safety BC, the RCMP and the employer.
Even though the chemical is used as a cooling agent in more than half of Canada’s 2,500 indoor ice rinks, the incident in Fernie is the country’s first fatal leak.
Meanwhile, community services manager Gerald Davis said “there’s a long list of checks and balances” in place to ensure thousands of Canadian arenas, including the Sun Bowl Arena in Osoyoos, that use ammonia as part of their ice-making operations, are safe.
Dinwoodie and Davis agree there are strict and stringent procedures in place to ensure ammonia, which is used in the vast majority of Canadian rinks to help produce ice, to ensure an incident doesn’t take place.
“They must have been doing some kind of maintenance work inside the arena when this happened,” said Dinwoodie. “There are strict safety protocols in place, but obviously something went horribly wrong.
“My heart really goes out to the guys who lost their lives and their families. This is a real tragedy and I know everyone in the community is reeling from this.”
Dinwoodie said he thoroughly enjoyed his six years living and working in Fernie and it’s hard to believe an incident like this took place in the same arena he often worked.
The building is called the Fernie Memorial Arena because a fire many years ago claimed the life of another local resident many years ago, said Dinwoodie.
“I don’t know if that arena is cursed or what,” he said. “It’s hard to believe this could happen after someone else was killed in a tragic fire many years ago.”
Davis said every arena employee hired by the Town of Osoyoos undergoes strict training learning how to deal with ammonia and other noxious substances used in the building’s ice plant.
“Ammonia is a dangerous and lethal substance … so we have a ton of protocols in place to deal with it,” he said.
The Sun Bowl Arena has three full-time staff, led by arena manager Tom Snoek, and they all have special certification to deal with ammonia and all other hazardous materials involved with safe arena maintenance, he said.
The Town has a contract with a Kelowna-based refrigeration contractor called Complete Climate Control and they are responsible for training arena staff, as well as completing annual summer maintenance on the ice plant inside the arena, said Davis.
“We have two large compressors (that use ammonia) … and one of the two is taken completely apart every second year and fixed top to bottom, while the second one is looked at very closely during each summer maintenance shutdown,” he said.
All three full-time staff and three part-time staff at the Sun Bowl have certification in ammonia operations, ice facility operations and/or refrigeration operations, he said.
There is also an intricate monitoring and warning system in place should an ammonia leak take place, said Davis.
If the warning alarm is sounded, officials from the B.C. Safety Authority, Fire Chief Rick Jones and himself would be contacted immediately and safety protocols to evacuate the building would immediately go into effect, he said.
“We do have a specific plan in place should an ammonia leak take place,” he said. “If there were a leak, all staff have procedures they have been trained to follow.”
Because the training and safety systems are so detailed and intricate to deal with ammonia, it’s hard to believe the Fernie tragedy has happened, said Davis.
“It’s just crazy, shocking actually,” he said. “Fernie is a small town roughly the same size as Osoyoos and I can only imagine how tough a time the people are having with this. It’s very sad.”
The full-time staff at the Sun Bowl Arena are so committed to their jobs that one of them regularly checks in on their own time to make sure the ice plant is working properly at all times, he said.
“Our guys will come in to check everything is working smoothly even when they’re off duty on days when the arena is closed on statutory holidays,” he said.
While ammonia is potentially lethal, the reality is the safety protocols in place do work as there have been so few serious incidents through the many decades since it first started being used in ice plants across the country, he said.
There will be a detailed investigation report released by senior government officials and Davis is sure arena operations managers across the country will be mandated to read the report to ensure an incident like the one in Fernie never happens again.
“It will be interesting to find out exactly what happened … to make sure it never happens again,” he said.
As of early this week, close to 60 Fernie residents remained evacuated.
A report released from Technical Safety BC found that of the 50 refrigerant incidents documented between 2007 and 2015, 40 involved systems containing ammonia. The report found, however, that only 10 of those incidents resulted in injuries.
Mayor Mary Giuliano said the incident has hit her East Kootenay community hard.
Giuliano said that the local junior hockey team regularly draws close to a thousand spectators for home games.
“I hate to admit it, but the thought did cross my mind that ‘I’m so glad that something like this didn’t happen when the arena was full,’ “ she said.
Premier John Horgan and Labour Minister Harry Bains issued a joint statement, saying they “were saddened to learn of three workplace fatalities. This is a tragic situation. Families and friends are grieving, and our hearts are with them.”
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
The Town of Osoyoos says many stringent procedures are in place at the Sun Bowl Arena to ensure that an ammonia incident doesn’t take place. Most rinks in Canada use ammonia to produce ice. Town of Osoyoos Operations Manager Jim Dinwoodie previously supervised one of the Fernie employees killed last week in that community after ammonia leaked. (Richard McGuire file photo)
