The city of Kamloops is celebrating its second annual Arena Safety Week.

It was launched as a response to the tragic incident in Fernie in 2017 where an ammonia leak killed three people.

Kamloops Facilities Manager Jeff Putnam says it hasn’t had a significant impact on maintenance protocols, but it has made learning and reviewing those protocols more important.

“Every arena now has a little blue light which, say if there’s a minor ammonia leak and it rises above 25 parts per million, the blue light will flash. That will just alert our crews that there could be a minor leak in the plant room and then we’ll check on it and then there is a protocol to follow where the supervisor gets notified and then it gets investigated,” said Putnam.

“If there was an ammonia leak within the enclosed ice plant room, in each of the rinks they’re all completely enclosed, we had to improve, through the legislation, improve the volume of exhaust fans so it gets exhausted out faster. That’s one of the outcomes that came out of the Fernie tragedy.”

Putnam says it is a chance to review and reinforce current protocols.

“It’s a great opportunity to put the focus on our rinks, with our employees, and do everything we can to increase our awareness around the safe handling of ammonia, refrigeration systems as well as review our evacuation procedures.”