A major ammonia leak required the evacuation of the Center Georges-Vézina, in Saguenay, on Sunday evening, while a Senior Hockey League game was held in front of an audience.
The problem is said to be due to a breakdown in the refrigeration system. Ammonia is still widely used in Quebec arenas. Monday, everything was back to normal, but some questions remain.
Nearly 100 people were inside the Center Georges-Vézina at the time of the incident. They were mostly players from the Saguenay senior hockey team.
It was during the third period that a strong smell resembling cat urine alerted the players on the ice. One of them telephoned the Fire Department shortly before 8 p.m. Within regarding 15 minutes, everyone was evacuated.
“We were removed from the ice by the referees. We were in the room getting changed, some were even getting ready to go in the shower. The firefighters arrived with their clothes, their gas masks. It is certain that it struck the imagination, “said one of the players, Mathieu Tremblay.
“We might see that there was some kind of fly residue coming down from the ceiling. We said to ourselves: “yes, I think it’s serious”. When we saw that the firefighters were evacuating the players with their skates on their feet, we said to ourselves that there was no chance to take, ”continued the head of the league, Nicolas Plante.
A special situation
The refrigeration system where the ammonia leak occurred is located in a single location in the arena, it is isolated in a sealed room. At the time of the incident, the system detected a slight presence of ammonia, which triggered a silent alarm to notify the building manager. The latter therefore communicated directly with the refrigeration technicians to seal the leak.
“If the leak is minor, activities can continue in the arena since the room is sealed and the system automatically evacuates the gas to the outside of the building,” explained Dominic Arseneau, communications manager for the city of Saguenay. .
Meanwhile, a seal would have broken in the refrigeration system, spreading the fumes elsewhere in the building. That’s when firefighters were called for a suspicious smell. The analysis of the premises made it possible to note the significant presence of ammonia and to proceed quickly with the evacuation.
Luckily, everyone escaped unscathed, despite the symptoms.
“All the people affected had head words. It stayed with us until we went to bed at night, even the next morning. It was taken care of quickly but might it have been done differently? Maybe,” wondered Mr. Tremblay.
Available once more
The building was ventilated and the breakage repaired. The Georges-Vézina Center is once once more accessible.
“We don’t quite have the portrait of what happened on the breakage yet. But the building service and a team is dedicated to that to trace the thread of events, to diagnose the system to understand what happened, ”explained Mr. Arseneau.
Several players believe that measures should be taken to prevent such a situation from happening once more.
“We know that these are things that can happen but this is not the first time that we have heard this kind of story in this arena, which is still over 75 years old. It might have happened on Saturday or Friday when the Saguenéens were playing with 3,000 people in the stands in the middle of the playoffs. I don’t want to imagine what it might have done for those people. It would be a shame if something serious happened. We really ask ourselves questions, ”said Mathieu Tremblay.
Ongoing analyzes will make it possible to understand what happened and to see if other methods for detecting leaks might be used in the future.
