Jason O. Watson-USA TODAY Sports
Corrections and clarifications: This story has been amended to reflect that the accident was caused by an ice resurfacer, not a Zamboni machine.
A juniors hockey game in Wisconsin was marred this weekend when a malfunctioning ice resurfacer leaked carbon monoxide into a crowded rink and hospitalized 81 people.
The leak happened at the Poppy Waterman Ice Arena during a Minnesota Junior Hockey League game, which was played on Saturday night between the Dells Ducks and the Rochester Ice Hawks. Players and fans complained of nausea, dizziness, vomiting, headaches and fainting.
There were no carbon monoxide detectors in the building, but attendees were able to figure out what had gone wrong because so many people got sick at once.
One Ducks player fainted and was hospitalized Sunday in Milwaukee, where he was receiving oxygen therapy in a hyperbaric chamber and improving, said head coach Bill Zaniboni. Doctors ordered another Ducks player to stay in bed at home until Wednesday, Zaniboni said.
Apparently the ice resurfacer wasn’t properly burning propane, and the leftover gas made the level of carbon monoxide unsafe in the rink. One of the players said this wasn’t the first time it had happened at the rink.
Once Saturday’s game began, players were fighting the symptoms and had trouble breathing, Fatis said. Several failed to finish the game.
After the game, Fatis continued, “one of our players from last year pulled me aside and said, ‘You know, I got really sick here last year.’ ” The player added that his father raised the prospect of carbon monoxide as the culprit.
The ice resurfacer has been decommissioned and all the resurfacers at the rink are being inspected today.
