Twenty-four employees at Festive Chicken in Olifantsfontein, Ekurhuleni, have been hospitalised following an ammonia leak at the facility.
In a statement, the Ekurhuleni Emergency Services said preliminary information indicated that routine maintenance work had been carried out at the facility from 6am on Wednesday.
It is reported that one of the pressure-release valves experienced a technical failure later that afternoon, resulting in employees inhaling ammonia fumes.
The incident was reported through the Life-Threatening Call Centre.
Emergency officials said that, upon arrival at the scene, they found several employees experiencing respiratory distress and requested medical assistance.
Ammonia levels have since reportedly dropped to zero, and employees have been given the go-ahead to return to work.
“According to the site’s engineering manager, the highest ammonia concentration recorded during testing was 222 parts per million (ppm). Subsequent testing conducted at approximately 19:45 indicated that ammonia levels had dropped to zero,” the statement read.
