Several young hockey players fell ill and three had to spend the night in hospital after a carbon monoxide leak at an ice arena in a small town outside Calgary over the weekend.

The poisonings happened on Saturday at the Rockyford Sportsplex, about 65 kilometres northeast of Calgary, where the Hockey Super League was holding a tournament.

Founded in 2017, the HSL is an 80-team private program that describes itself as an alternative to the minor hockey winter season, aimed at developing high-level hockey players who aren’t restricted geographically.

The Hockey Super League refused to say what teams were playing at the Rockyford Sportsplex at the time, citing privacy reasons. However, the organization’s website said on Sat. Dec. 14, four teams of 10-year-olds were scheduled to play: the Aces Hockey Academy, Calgary Crusaders, Spartan Hockey Academy RED, and the O2 Grizzlies.

Kristine and Eric Hunter’s 10-year-old son Smith is a player on the Spartan Hockey Academy RED team based in Calgary.

They said the team played in the morning with no problem and left for lunch, but then during the afternoon game against the Calgary Crusaders several kids began to get sick and some even left the bench for the dressing room.

“Some had headaches, some were throwing up. So we had figured the boys had a flu or something,” Kristine Hunter said.

Carrie Sweezey’s 10-year-old son Whelan, who goes by the nickname Wells, plays for the 2014 Aces Hockey Academy major team based in Edmonton.

She said in the hours leading up to kids complaining of illness, something seemed off inside the arena.

“Hindsight looking back on the day, even from early on with our team, there was a quietness in the building that day,” Sweezey said.

“I know I’m not the only parent that picked up on it, a mom from the Calgary Crusaders said the same thing — there was an eerie fatigue through the arena — right from early on that day.

“Everyone was quiet. The parents were quiet. The kids weren’t really talking on the ice. The kids seemed lethargic to me.”

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Following the afternoon game, Sweezey said a parent walked out of the dressing room with a large garbage bag and said there were multiple kids violently throwing up inside the room.

“I do think all the parents just assumed stomach flu, something viral going through that team — sometimes you have the incidents where one kid starts throwing up and obviously it’s a spiral effect in a small room like that.

“We definitely didn’t go to carbon monoxide poisoning at all.”

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Known as the “silent killer,” carbon monoxide (CO) is a colourless, odourless gas. The most common symptoms of CO poisoning are headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and confusion. Breathing in too much CO can cause loss of consciousness, coma or even death.

The top three product categories that produce CO poisoning in Canada are kitchen appliances, heating and cooling appliances, and generators.

Sweezey said Wells started to feel off after his morning game and mom chalked his headache, fatigue and nausea up to cold and flu season and gave her son pain medication. Wells got worse when they returned for their afternoon game.

“His symptoms progressively got worse during that time,” she said, adding by the time they got to their car after the game, her son was almost in tears and said his head was throbbing and he was very nauseous. They went back to their hotel room with the intention of sleeping it off.

Kristine Hunter said her son Smith also came out of the dressing room in rough shape.

“Was very, very pale and said he has an extremely bad headache,” Kristine said.

They began to head home, and she said the hour-long drive was a parent’s worst nightmare — her son was getting sicker and sicker, and she had no clue why.

“Horrible. The worst (drive) of my whole life. It was so scary,” she said, choking up with tears.

“It was scary to see him so sick and at the time we didn’t know what it was.”

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Dad Eric Hunter is an assistant coach with the Spartans but wasn’t in Rockyford on Saturday, as their daughter had her own tournament in Calgary.

He heard from his wife on Saturday afternoon that a bunch of kids were becoming sick and they were coming home. He also assumed it was a stomach bug.

“They were driving home on a single-lane highway in the dark and pulling over for him to throw up. So, you know, certainly, I thought it was just a bad flu and was concerned for their safety on the road more than anything,” Eric said.

The family then heard from another parent at the tournament, who upon seeing so many kids sick with the same symptoms called the fire department. Firefighters checked the arena and determined there were high levels of carbon monoxide in the air.

Hunter said all parents of kids who had symptoms were advised to go to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

Smith’s condition deteriorated as they left home to get help and mom Kristine feared the worst.

“The drive from home to the hospital was a scariest — he started to fall asleep.”

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By the time the Hunters arrived at the ACH, the hospital was aware of what had happened and ready for them.

“The nurses were fantastic. They had a triage set up and there was about, I want to say like 15 to 20 kids there on oxygen,” Kristine said.

“They were all-hands-on-deck and they kept the kids feeling safe and comfortable. And I would say that they did an incredible job,” Eric added.

The parents said some kids were at the hospital out of an abundance of caution, but others were in worse condition.

“Smith was one of the extreme ones where you know, he was throwing up a little bit more than most and feeling worse. But I think we were all just confused how this can happen,” Eric said.

Their son was admitted with high levels of CO and put on oxygen right away.

“He started to feel better instantly. And then they just took his blood several times and put him on an EKG just to make sure that there were no issues with his heart,” Kristine said.

Eric said it wasn’t just kids who got sick — his wife was tested while at the children’s hospital and staff found she also had elevated CO levels.

“It was about halfway through the night that she went to get up to help one of the kids and got light-headed, I think maybe briefly lost consciousness or fainted,” Eric said.

He added he got a frightened call from his son that his mom was sick too. Eric said he woke his daughter and they headed to the children’s hospital.

“The drive there was really scary because I was concerned for my wife. I was concerned for my son. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” he said.

Thankfully, Eric said when he arrived most of the other kids had been cleared and released, while his wife and son were both on oxygen and improving. Kristine was sent over to the Foothills Regional Hospital for monitoring, and released later Sunday morning.

Back at the hotel, Sweezey said she learned around 9 p.m. Saturday that firefighters had confirmed high levels of CO so she packed her kid up in the car and headed to the emergency room at the Strathmore hospital.

Both Sweezey and her son Well, as well as another mother and son from the tournament, were admitted because of high CO levels and sent for blood work and an EKG.

“I do think that break in-between and getting outside and having some fresh air probably was our only saving grace. I think if we had hung out there in between games, which we had originally planned to do, I think our outcomes could have been a lot more severe,” she said.

Thankfully everyone involved is ok now. All of the parents say they’re still in a bit of shock over the ordeal and question if the situation could have been prevented.

“My thought would have been, there would have been an alarm to notify us of the CO in the air,” Kristine said.

The couple did some research after their ordeal and found out CO poisoning in arenas happens more frequently than one might think, pointing to similar scenarios in B.C. and Saskatchewan in the past year: people at an arena in Coquitlam got sick from CO in September, and in November of 2023 in Wakaw, northeast of Saskatoon. In both of those cases, Zamboni exhaust was suspected as the source.

“I’m shocked after learning that this actually happens quite often. I know how lucky we were and I know that this outcome could have been so different,” Kristine said.

All hockey arenas in Alberta should have carbon monoxide detectors with audible alarms, Kristine said, adding she is going to buy a portable one to bring to all future games.

“It will always be now forever, I think, on all of our minds.”

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Eric agreed, saying said he’s spent his life in arenas all over the world and doesn’t want to place blame on Rockyford or speak prematurely, but wants to make sure something like this never happens again.

“If it can happen there and there was no monitors and no alarms, how do we know it can’t happen in other places?” Eric said.

The City of Edmonton mandates CO monitoring inside its facilities and Sweezey wants more regulation on carbon monoxide detectors in all Alberta public buildings.

“I think that this was a close call and from what I hear, not a one-off — this happens frequently,” Sweezey said. “So I think that there needs to be some discussion around how we can improve and just be better for these facilities.

“This was a very, very close call and it could have been fatal.”

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The Village of Rockyford said the Rockyford Fire Department responded around 7 p.m. to the arena after a hockey team called 911, and firefighters confirmed high levels of carbon monoxide were detected inside the building.

The arena was evacuated and ATCO Gas called in.

“It was determined that a radiant heater was defective and causing the emissions to vent into the building,” the village said.

The village said several children became ill with high carbon monoxide exposure, and three spent the night at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

All of the people affected took themselves to hospital, and Alberta Health Services said no one required EMS transportation.

Rockyford said the arena will remain closed until the necessary repairs to the heaters are completed and a follow-up inspection is conducted to ensure the safety of all.

“The Village and Rockyford Ag Society will be working collaboratively to ensure public safety,” the community said.

The Hockey Super League said the safety of its athletes and families is its number one priority.

“We are conducting a comprehensive review of the policies and safety measures of all facilities we utilize. We are actively reviewing future showcases scheduled at the Rockyford arena and will wait until a full investigation is completed to determine potential changes of dates and changes of future showcases within the Rockyford facility,” the league said in a statement to Global News.

Kristine is so thankful another parent thought to call the fire department.

“If that parent didn’t phone in, I think it could have been a really different story today.”

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