INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
BUSINESS AND TRAINING
Jill Pollock-Perks with the team of MHR ( Major Hazard Risk ) Consultants – Vernique Naidoo , Terence and his father Claude Thackwray .
Jacques Esterhuizen ( Fruitways ), Andrew Perks and Pieter Kotze ( Fruitways ). of practical experience emphasised ; “ Site Incident Response Training is not a ‘ nice to have ’, but a prerequisite that will prepare the site and possibly prevent the consequences of an incident that can escalate due to lack of an effective response .” Another one of ASTI ’ s training slogans is ‘ stop them all or keep them small ’. Good approach .
Response plans needed to be tailored for each site and the plan has to take account of the surrounding environment and possible climatic conditions . Any plan must always allow for escalating conditions and know when to disengage when things are getting out of control .
Perks highlighted that it ’ s all about water in an incident :
• Large amounts of water are used to contain any vapour release of ammonia and to minimise the damage of ammonia burns on the human body
• There should be eye wash and shower stations for flushing the body with plenty of water
• Special care must be taken when removing any clothing which may have been frozen to the body due to liquid ammonia splashing onto the person
• The clothing must be totally defrosted with water before removing
After a short break , the emergency alarm , along with the emergency plan , was activated . The emergency controller proceeded to the command station 300m upwind from the incident where he controlled all of the site response teams . The ammonia response team rapidly donned full PPE with masks and tanks ,
Lizelle van der Berg ( Commercial Cold Storage ) with Jill Pollock-Perks .
before entering the building to evacuate a trapped person , returning to isolate the source of release . Meanwhile outside , the site ’ s firefighting team contained the release from spreading using diffused curtains of water from the fire hydrants . Thereafter , the evacuation team undertook role call and the security team locked down the site .
Attendees gathered outside and from a safe distance witnessed the full exercise and the response to be activated with an ammonia release .
The half day training ended with a light lunch and much networking among the attendees as to how to improve their response plans at their various sites . There were also many requests for further information for Andrew Perks , Jill Pollock- Perks and Christopher Kent of A Perks Enterprises . CLA
Members of the emergency services were also in attendance .
The emergency controller kept all spectators 300m upstream from the ammonia release .
Look-alike father and son team , Jeff and Alexander Wedgewood ( Jeff Wedgewood Consulting Engineers ).
Response plans needed to be tailored for each site and the plan has to take account of the surrounding environment and possible climatic conditions .
After being in the cold storage industry for many years , Carlos of Crossberth Cold Stores gave some valuable input .
The emergency response team contained the spread of the ammonia release by diffused curtains of high-pressure water from the fire hydrants .
COLD LINK AFRICA • May 2024 www . coldlinkafrica . co . za 21