No one takes a report of an ammonia leak lightly, especially since three men lost their lives in the Fernie Memorial Arena in October of 2017.
So when a call came in from Columbia Brewery last Thursday it got an all hands on deck response from local emergency services. Within minutes, Creston Fire and Rescue, Canyon-Lister Fire Department and RCMP were on the scene, securing the area and helping with the evacuation of employees.
“During the investigation, Brewery employees were evacuated from the facility as a safety precaution,” Mike Moore, the Town of Creston’s interim chief administrative officer, said on Monday. “In preparation of any potential leak that could impact nearby residents, representatives from the Town of Creston, the RCMP and RDCK activated the local emergency operations centre (EOC) in the event of incident escalation. During the investigation of the ammonia alarm activation, there was no immediate danger to nearby residents or to the community at large.”
Shortly after the call response, firefighters were strategically stationed around the brewery, using portable air quality monitors to watch for evidence of ammonia in the air.
“For our community to be protected from a wide variety of potential hazards it is important that we are prepared for almost any eventuality,” Mayor Ron Toyota said on Tuesday. “The quick response from emergency services on Thursday, which included the activation of our emergency operations centre, is a tribute to the training, planning, and co-ordination of services in the Creston Valley. I commend all of those who have worked so hard to make this system work so well. We might not always be as lucky as we were on Thursday, where the incident turned out to be relatively minor.”