CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — Faulty natural gas heaters at Holiday Twin Rinks hockey complex are to blame for sending over 100 people to the hospital with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning Cheektowaga Town Officials said Thursday.
Carbon monoxide (CO) levels were detected at 30 times the acceptable level of 0-10 parts per million or PPM in certain areas of the building.
In a statement, National Fuel said those furnaces were located in the snack bar area and caused CO levels to build up over the course of several days.
The dangerous situation led hundreds of people, including players, coaches, parents, and staff who were at the rink for a tournament to evacuate Wednesday night.
Cheektowaga Emergency Management told 2 On Your Side, in total 111 people were treated at various local hospitals for symptoms ranging from lightheadedness to stomach problems. They were all treated with oxygen and were released. No one had to be admitted.
The Forks Fire Department reported finding levels between 200 and 400 parts per million and the hockey rink was immediately ventilated. Firefighters and National Fuel traced the leak to those malfunctioning heaters. According to Emergency Management Director Jason, those heaters were fixed on Thursday by a crew hired by the rink and inspected.
Parents and coaches told 2 On Your Side they had no warning, other than feeling sick and were left wondering why a carbon monoxide detector hadn't gone off.
Director Tolsma said code enforcement tested the rink's carbon monoxide detectors which were working Thursday morning. He added that the rink was also in compliance with town code although they were advised to add more detectors.
"The code doesn't necessarily specify how far the CO detectors have to be away from anything that could produce carbon monoxide or how many have to be in the building and with some additional guidance from our code enforcement they are adding additional CO detectors throughout the building to prevent this from happening again," Tolsma said.
Update 12/29- after stating the re-opening of the rink, it will no longer be open until further notice.
Last evening Holiday Twin Rinks was required to evacuate the building due to a faulty heat exchanger in our Lobby heater, causing unsafe levels of CO. This heating item has been disconnected and is being fully replaced today. In addition National Fuel has been working with our staff throughout the entire night, checking ALL existing gas lines (dehumidifier, heaters, Zamboni, water tanks, etc) and has given us approval to safely operate again. We are obviously disappointed that our CO detectors failed us during this terrible event. Today we have a company coming in to install ALL NEW detectors to ensure this does not happen again. We are very sorry that our customers in the building had to experience this event and we hope that all of our hockey families are feeling better!
Late Thursday however the rink said it would be putting "safety first" and would remain closed.
“We don't believe this is anything criminal at this point carbon monoxide is produced by any appliance that operates on natural gas which is malfunctioning at that point so we don't believe this is a criminal act,” said Cheektowaga Emergency Services Manager Jason Tolsma.
Rink management offered a written apology via Facebook Thursday and hoped that anyone involved was feeling better.