City arena roof collapses a day after alarm raised
No one injured At evacuated facility, plan to shore up structure too late
One day after structural concerns were raised about a city arena, the roof came crashing down Tuesday afternoon.
Nobody was injured by the roof collapse at Fairview Arena, according to EMS, which responded to the scene along with the Calgary Fire Department and Calgary police.
The roof collapsed shortly after 4:30 p.m. according to a police spokesperson.
The arena had been closed since Monday due to “structural issues,” according to Leslie Ann Kalman, a director for the Fairview Women’s Hockey Arena Society and the Southern Alberta Women’s Hockey Association, which maintains operations of the facility.
“I understand that there was a snapping sound heard (Monday) and a crack was observed in a roof truss,” said Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra, whose ward is home to the facility.
“The City of Calgary responded immediately to that call, assessments were made and it was understood that we’ve got a problem. At noon (Tuesday), there was a plan to go in and fix the trussing system and now we’re hearing that the roof actually collapsed before we could shore it up. The shoring did not take place in time to prevent the roof from collapsing.”
Kalman said the arena had been evacuated since Monday and nobody was inside when the roof collapsed.
“We erred on the side of caution (Monday) when we saw some structural issues,” Kalman said. “The city has been working with us for the past 30 hours to figure out what to do, and it collapsed.”
The city’s building services department deemed the building unsafe after surveying it Monday along with engineers and representatives from the Calgary Fire Department, according to CFD spokeswoman Carol Henke.
Henke said it was still unsafe for fire crews to enter the building as of Tuesday evening, as they instead continued surveying it from above.
Kalman declined to comment on what might have caused the roof to collapse, instead directing questions to the city. The City of Calgary declined to comment.
“Everything ’s been well-maintained. This was something completely outside the scope of normal maintenance,” Kalman said.
Carra said there were no ongoing issues with the maintenance of the building to his knowledge.
“There were no red flags,” he said. “We can speculate was this a snowpack thing, we can speculate was this just a 1972 building that was suffering from 1972 buildingitis? I don’t know. We’re going to figure all of that out.”
Built in 1972, the facility was turned over to the City of Calgary in 2007 by the Fairview community, according to the arena’s website. In need of major renovations, the City of Calgary upgraded the ice plant and the roof, and re-tendered the operation of the arena.
The Southern Alberta Women’s Hockey Association has maintained operations of the arena since then.
All upcoming games were cancelled after the building ’s closure on Monday, according to Kalman.
“We were completely sold out on prime time, every day from 4 p.m. on, and all day Saturday and Sunday,” she said. “I am just really thankful there was nobody in the building.”
Carra said the city is working with the association to salvage its season.
“Our first concern, obviously, is that nobody got hurt,” he said. “Now, the big concern is what to do with the rest of the women’s hockey season and how to actually get this vital facility back up and running, and we’ve got zero answers at this point.”