Shortly before 1 a.m. Monday morning, Patrick Sawyer was flooding the surface of the old Sylvan Lake Arena when he heard several bangs. Then after another series of bangs, the roof started to collapse and he scrambled to safety uninjured.
Mayor Sean McIntyre, Sawyer, and Graham Parsons, owner of Sylvan Lake Summer Hockey School, operator of the arena and a town councillor, examined the wreckage shortly afterwards. Several beams fell in, the back wall was blown out and the ice surface was completely littered with snow and debris. The machine Sawyer was operating was also buried by the falling roof.
A women’s hockey team, the last to use the facility, had departed the building around midnight.
More stories about the roof collapse online and in this week’s paper.