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Perry’s Ice Cream
Colleen Knopeck
716.562.0264
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Perry’s Ice Cream Successfully Executed Emergency Drill
Local Emergency Responders Trained During Mock Ammonia Leak
Akron, N.Y. – October 14, 2015 – This past weekend, Perry’s Ice Cream, in conjunction with the Akron Fire Company, the Akron/Newstead Disaster Coordinators and several other local agencies, voluntarily conducted a Hazardous Materials Drill at the Perry’s facility in Akron, New York.
The purpose of this event was to exercise emergency plans, response procedures and to provide technical hands-on practice for emergency response agencies.
Around 8 a.m. on October 10th, a mock report of an ammonia release at the Perry’s facility was issued to Akron Fire Company. In this practice scenario, the release moved downwind of Perry’s facility towards Akron School. Within minutes, the Akron Fire Company and Clarence Hazmat Chief were on the scene. Additional responding agencies were the Clarence Fire Department Hazmat team, Erie County Hazmat and Brighton Hazmat. With the help of Erie County Emergency Services and the Mobile Command Unit, Hazmat teams were dispatched into the facility to identify and isolate the leak.
“Perry’s has always been committed to safety, focusing on our team members and the local community. It is important to practice our plans and procedures in order to be prepared in an emergency situation. This exercise allowed us to provide realistic hands-on training for our Perry’s Response Team as well as the local emergency responders and area support teams. We conducted a similar drill five years ago and will continue to make sure our team members receive the proper emergency training with the support of the local response teams,” said Brian Perry, Executive Vice President of Perry’s Ice Cream.
Tim Gominiak, Perry’s Maintenance Engineering Manager added, “We’ve been coordinating this drill since March of this year. There are a lot of moving parts involved in a scenario like this so it’s important that we practice working together to achieve a common goal. Last night we concluded the learning from this training exercise by debriefing with the responding agencies.”
Agencies involved in the training included the Perry’s Ice Cream Response Team, Akron Fire Company, Clarence Fire Company Hazmat Team, Brighton Hazmat Team, Erie County Hazardous Materials/WMD Emergency Response Team, and Emergency Management personnel from the Town of Newstead and the Town of Clarence were used as observers.
“This exercise brought together all the agencies that would normally respond to a major incident, including Perry’s in-house technical response experts and emergency response teams from inside and outside of our community. All of these agencies need to be able to work closely together to manage an incident and keep our community safe,” said Joe Hawes, the Assistant Akron/Newstead Disaster Coordinator.
About Perry’s Ice Cream
Perry’s Ice Cream, founded in 1918 by H. Morton Perry, and headquartered in Western New York, is a family-owned and operated fourth generation ice cream manufacturer with over 300 employees. Perry’s Ice Cream uses fresh milk and cream from local farms to proudly craft and slow-cook its delectable ice cream products the old-fashioned way, for an exceptionally creamy texture and taste. For additional information about Perry’s Ice Cream, visit: www.PerrysIceCream.com or @perrysicecream via: