The City of Fernie Staff and Council gathered today to remember the three men lost on October 17, 2017 as a result of an ammonia leak at Fernie Memorial Arena.

The City of Fernie posted, “The today our thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues of Lloyd Smith, Wayne Hornquist, and Jason Podloski.

City facilities will be closed from 10:45am-1pm to give staff the opportunity to gather and remember Lloyd, Wayne and Jason.”

The loss of Wayne Hornquist, Lloyd Smith and Jason Podloski was felt by the entire community. It was important for the City to close their facilities and take time to remember.

In the years since the tragic incident occurred, the City of Fernie has made significant changes to the operation of Fernie Memorial Arena. In fall 2018, the Arena was re-opened with a new refrigeration plant that is housed outside the main Arena building and uses a synthetic refrigerant instead of ammonia.

Following the incident, Technical Safety BC put in place additional Province-wide regulations for testing and monitoring arena refrigeration plants, resulting in a number of rinks in B.C. discovering problems that might have become dangerous. Today, they renewed their calls for extra vigilance around ammonia-based refrigeration systems, and the need for continued safety enhancements in the industry.

Hopefully tragedies of this nature never happen again.