Sad, very sad!

Incidents like this have happened before, maybe not with ammonia but with Hydrogen Sulphide. A worker goes down, the initial reaction from co-workers is to rush in and save them, a natural human instinct, but they forget their training- first put on SCBA's then perform a rescue! The immediate responders become victims before they have a chance to help their colleague. 

Situations like this happen so infrequently that most personnel fall back on instincts rather than training. Perhaps we need to continually drive the points home with more frequent re-certification training. Some companies/municipalities find this training more of a headache than a benefit, until a serious injury or death occurs !

I've  sat through numerous H2S-Alive re-certification courses in my career and reviewed incident reports involving the death of personnel and immediate responders. I was always gobsmacked at the seemingly foolish responses of the immediate responders !