Back to basics
ANDREW PERKS
Andrew Perks is a subject expert in ammonia refrigeration. Since undertaking his apprenticeship in Glasgow in the
1960s he has held positions of contracts engineer, project engineer, refrigeration design engineer, company director for
a refrigeration contracting company and eventually owning his own contracting company and low temperature cold
store. He is now involved in adding skills to the ammonia industry, is merSETA accredited and has written a variety of unit
standards for SAQA that define the levels to be achieved in training in our industry.
ARE YOU REALLY PREPARED FOR
WHEN YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE HITS THE FAN?
By Andrew Perks
I know we have chatted before about the new SANS 1514:2018 Site Emergency Plan
Regulations and the yearly requirement to do an Ammonia Site Incident Response
training exercise, well it would appear that I am not just a voice in the wilderness.
A
s a member of the International Institute of Ammonia
Refrigeration (IIAR) I get their quarterly Condenser magazine and
the last one had an article titled ‘Pre-emergency preparedness’. What
it tells me is that there are a lot of other people out there with similar
issues and problems.
Being a third world country, we have our own set of emergency
response issues with lack of plant training, plants that are not in
conformity, lack of effective safety equipment and worse still, a lack of
training on how to use the safety equipment and the general response
from our emergency services.
That said I have met so many really good and effective Fire
Department people. They do not have much experience specifically
with ammonia releases and so may not understand the overriding
issues. At the end of the day these guys are your ultimate back up
before and if the Hazmat team (an organised group of professionals
who are specially trained to handle hazardous materials or dangerous
goods) arrives.
I will highlight some of author Kem Russell’s observations in his
article ‘Pre-emergency preparedness’, which I am sure will make you
think. His question is: are we blindly going forward under the illusion
it will never happen to us? The Ammonia Safety and Training Institute
(ASTI) video on what happened to Jose Mata certainly is a wake-up call;
not really about the incident but the chain of events that followed it,
where there was only half an idea about how to handle someone who
was injured by an Ammonia release and the consequences of this.
The object of doing the regular response training exercises is to
look at different scenarios and the impact on the basic site response
plan. You can never fully prepare for everything, but by doing a series of
different exercises and truthfully doing individual incident critiques you
can see where you can do it better. Hopefully, with this feedback the
emergency plan gets a lot more practical.
Russell’s comments were that the majority of people do not
consider their preparedness for an emergency, and only seriously think
about what they should have done after the emergency occurs. He said
that with great confidence as he was a volunteer for Search and Rescue
for over 20 years. For example, he poses the question – of all the people
www.hvacronline.co.za
who have ever been lost, how many have a map? Answer: almost none.
Here’s another: how many people with a GPS device know how to work
the device or know what the co-ordinates mean? Answer: much the
same – not very many.
There is no hard and fast rule as every site is different; plant layouts
vary, wind directions and access are dependent on the condition at the
time of an incident. Each plant must be treated on its own merits. Only
by doing a factual exercise can we recognise the shortfalls.
The thirty-minute plan as tabled by ASTI is a schedule of time
related procedures that should be implemented should there be an
emergency situation.
I know I am talking about Ammonia but that is not always the only
hazardous material and any possible incident on site may need to be
addressed. It’s all about procedures and structure that is understood by
all and adhered to.
Once there is a scenario selected, the full emergency team (it would
be beneficial to get the appropriate emergencies service involved)
starts to evaluate the incident and determines what should be done
and who does what. There are some very good videos out there with
good practical examples. After the initial brief the team members
should have a very clear idea of what’s happening and who is doing
what. It’s important that when a message is passed down that the
recipient responds by saying ‘am I correct in understanding’, and then
repeats the instruction so that the correct message is filtering down
through the organisation. Everyone on the emergency team should
know their role and the command structure.
Co-ordinating with the local emergency services such as the fire
department, ambulance service and the police will get you better
prepared to deal with an incident should it occur, and also illustrates
what assistance you can expect from your local emergency services.
At the end of the day it’s your site and until qualified help arrives your
team will need to deal with the consequences of any incident. If you
plan, practice, train and co-ordinate your on-site emergency team you
will be much better prepare for any eventuality.
Next month I will give you some feedback of the 2020 IIAR
conference in Orlando, which should be fun. RACA
RACA Journal I April 2020
67