Employees at an Abbotsford poultry business were evacuated Tuesday morning after an ammonia leak was reported at the location.
Emergency crews responded to Lilydale Food Products at Marshall Road south of Highway 1, Tuesday morning before 8 a.m.
“Currently, we’re just responding to an ammonia leak. At this point, it doesn’t pose a risk to anybody in the vicinity, but we’re just monitoring and have crews on, responding to help mitigate it,” Assistant Fire Chief Ron Hull said.
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Hull added they did not know the extent of the leak Tuesday morning until a hazmat crew could arrive, adding that a privately run hazmat crew was en route, along with a company to fix the leak.
“Nobody’s been injured. Building’s been evacuated and staff are all safe at a neighbouring building,” Hull said.
An elementary school nearby was advised to keep indoors as a precaution, Hull said.
“They had contacted and were worried and we just asked them to shelter in place,” Hull said. “We’ll keep them in for recess, I’m sure.”
Hull said it would be a slow process to resolve the issue.
“We’ll just keep monitoring to make sure everybody in the neighbouring area’s safe.”
The leak comes just under a year after three workers were killed in an Oct. 17, 2017 ammonia leak at the Fernie Memorial Arena, an incident that received scorning reports from WorkSafeBC.
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Dustin Godfrey | Reporter
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