Three people have been confirmed dead in Fernie, B.C., in connection with an ammonia leak at a hockey arena, and the city has declared a state of local emergency.
Residents who live near the Fernie Memorial Arena were Tuesday afternoon and to check in with Emergency Social Services at a drop-in centre. Several streets surrounding the arena were shut down, and the public was asked to avoid the area.
The city , which it says will remain in effect until Oct. 24.
Earlier in the day, the City of Fernie posted on its that the arena would be closed 鈥渨hile crews complete emergency repairs to the refrigeration plant.鈥�
The City of Fernie confirmed the three deaths The city said a Hazmat team from CIMCO Refrigeration was heading to the arena to deal with the situation.
Fernie fire chief Ted Ruiter says the deaths have been hard to process.
"Anytime you're dealing with fatalities it's always tough," he said of the event's impact on his crews. "We're a small city and everybody knows each other. It's very hard to deal with, for sure."
Long time residents echoed Ruiter's comments,
"The whole valley is just devastated at today's events," said Chris Inglis, a resident.
Ruiter said B.C.'s Ministry of Environment is also sending staff to assist with monitoring and to determine what the next steps will be.
The city's mayor says residents have gone out of their way to support the evacuees.
"We've had churches offer their halls, we've had people offering their homes if the evacuees needed a place to stay," said Mary Giuliano. "We'll be there for one another, and if it turns out [the victims] are Fernie people, we will be there for the families."
The victims' next of kin have been notified and the city says their identities are not being released at this time.
The RCMP are now leading the investigation of the site.
Ammonia is a colourless gas often used as an industrial refrigerant. ammonia has "suffocating fumes" and can be "immediately dangerous to life or health."
With files from the Canadian Press
