More regulation is needed to prevent a recurrence of the Tamahere Icepak tragedy, says a leader in the refrigeration industry.

“We need more regulation to prevent similar tragedies,” says Rob Morgan, chair of the Climate Control Companies Association. “What is in place is little known and insufficient.

“There is licensing for many trades, including plumbers, roofers and electricians; the person who fills up your gas bottle at the petrol station needs to be an approved HSNO filler, but anyone can install flammable refrigerants into a large system.”

Concerns have been raised by British refrigeration engineers over the flammable nature of next-generation refrigerants like the one that caused the fatal 2008 explosion at Tamahere.

RAC, the UK Refrigeration and Air Conditioning magazine, reported that industry concerns were growing over a surge in the use of flammable refrigerants and a lack of controls over who could buy them.

“It follows an inquest in New Zealand which heard that the refrigeration industry there does not have enough skilled staff to deal with the imminent growth of flammable hydrocarbons.”

Tamahere was put on the world map by the 2008 Icepak tragedy and the aftermath continues to attract global interest.

“A Coronial Inquest into the world’s most severe incident involving hydrocarbon refrigerants in New Zealand has been held recently,” reports hydrocarbons21.com.

An engineer has slammed the refrigeration industry for a lack of standards that he says allows virtually anyone to install a refrigeration system without any monitoring.

Brian Jackson, a professional engineer and member of the Institute of Refrigeration, Heating and Air Conditioning Engineers, gave evidence at the inquest into the death of senior firefighter Derek Lovell at Tamahere in 2008.

An Icepak director told an inquest into the death of a firefighter it was unlikely the company would ever use hydrocarbon gas in the future.

Wayne Grattan made the comment during a coroner’s inquest into Hamilton Senior Station Officer Derek Lovell’s death at Tamahere in April 2008.

An inquest into an explosion at Icepak Tamahere that killed a senior firefighter and injured several of his colleagues has heard how the plant had ongoing problems – including a major gas leak – just months before the fatal blast.

The inquest into the death of senior firefighter Derek Lovell opened in Hamilton today more than three years after he died and has been widely reported.

Meyer Gouda, a small family-owned Dutch cheese business, lost $200,000 worth of stock in the 2008 Icepak fire at Tamahere.

Losing 46% of their annual production was a crisis for the family business but one it has overcome in style three years on.

Meanwhile, the inquest into the death of fireman Derek Lovell in the Icepak explosion is set to begin next Monday (September 5).

The Waikato Times today apologised for inaccuracies in an August 20 story on a summary judgment application by Brian Liddell against Waikato Coolstorage, formerly Icepak Coolstores.

Firefighters commemorated the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York with a memorial climb up the BNZ Tower in Auckland’s CBD this morning that also remembered fireman Derek Lovell who died following the Tamahere blast of 2008.

Environmental regulators say they have tightened rules requiring odours to be added to LPG gas, improvements to the design of refrigeration using it, signage at those sites, and constraints on the quantities that can be stored indoors in the wake of the Icepak tragedy.