The Grand Valley and District Community Centre re-opened Tuesday following a carbon monoxide leak over the weekend.
More than a dozen people were taken to hospital for treatment following the carbon monoxide leak in the arena Sunday afternoon. Fire crews said people inside were starting to feel dizzy, nauseous, and had headaches.
Crews immediately evacuated the building and began ventilating. They later confirmed high levels of carbon monoxide in the building.
Officials say thanks to the immediate actions of an off-duty paramedic and local emergency services the danger was mitigated.
An investigation determined the source of the carbon monoxide leak to be a faulty part on the arena’s ice resurfacing machine which was in use that day.
A factory authorized technician attended the community centre on Tuesday morning and made the necessary repairs to the ice resurfacing machine, a subsequent emissions test of the propane fueled machine showed that the carbon monoxide leak was corrected the town said in a press release.
“The Town of Grand Valley regrets the unfortunate circumstances that occurred and we are thankful that those who became ill have recovered,” said Mayor Steve Soloman.
The Community Centre’s joint health and safety committee has implemented some immediate changes to their procedures to ensure that a carbon monoxide detector is readily available when the ice resurfacing machine is in use.
The mayor says the town has committed to installing carbon monoxide detectors in all town facilities in the near the future to ensure a similar incident doe not occur again.
