Carbon monoxide leak sickened L.B. hockey players

City’s Ice Arena reopens after CO scare led to closure

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A carbon monoxide leak forced the closure of the Long Beach Ice Arena for several hours on Wednesday, after members of a local youth hockey team became ill during practice the previous night, city officials said.

Long Beach Fire Commissioner Scott Kemins said he was notified about the incident on Wednesday morning and firefighters immediately responded to the facility, at 150 W. Bay Dr., where they discovered elevated levels of carbon monoxide, a poisonous, colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas.

Kemins said that several players on Tuesday reported that they had become ill and complained of vomiting and nausea.


“It happened on Tuesday night when the hockey team was practicing and some of the kids didn’t feel well,” said Kemins, who added that the building was unoccupied on Wednesday and had not yet opened when firefighters arrived. “If you’re in there for a certain amount of time it will make you feel nauseous and light-headed. As soon as we knew about it, it was handled immediately and, to the best of our knowledge, no one needed further medical care.”

National Grid and a hazmat team from the Nassau County Fire Marshal’s office also responded to the scene before 10 a.m., and joined firefighters in shutting down all appliances and equipment, testing CO levels and ventilating the building. The cause of the leak was attributed to a malfunctioning water heater that was disconnected.

“That building does have a lot of carbon monoxide-producing equipment in it, whether it be a grill or stove in the kitchen area, or a hot water heater,” Kemins said. “They remained there until all levels went down to zero and everything was functioning properly.”

Kemins said that the incident delayed the opening of the facility by a few hours, and the building reopened that afternoon after an inspection determined that it was safe.

City officials reached out to the coach of the team, and players exhibiting symptoms were urged to seek medical care. Joe Brand, head of the Long Beach Lightning program, said that he began receiving texts and emails from parents informing him that their kids had complained of nausea, dizziness and headaches after practice.

“The kids are doing fine — a handful of them went to the hospital to get their blood levels tested, and so far everyone has come back [OK] … everyone was treated with oxygen and there are no major issues,” said Brand, adding that coaches and team managers notified the city on Wednesday morning.

The Ice Arena did not have CO detectors, and Michael Uttaro, an assistant chief with the fire marshal’s office, said that the hazmat team detected carbon monoxide levels as high as 250 parts per million.

“The alarms are usually set to trigger anywhere from 30 to 50 parts per million,” Uttaro said. “It becomes dangerous, and the higher it goes, the quicker that the average person would feel the effects and start to exhibit signs and symptoms.”

In 2014, Governor Cuomo signed a new law requiring commercial buildings and restaurants throughout the state to install CO detectors by June 2016. The measure was passed in response to the death of Steven Nelson, a manager at a Legal Sea Foods restaurant at the Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station, who died in 2014 following a carbon monoxide leak.

Previously, the installation and maintenance of CO detectors was required only for one or two-family homes, condominiums and cooperatives. Uttaro said that Nassau County passed its own ordinance that year requiring CO alarms in commercial buildings, and has been working to spread the word about the new rules.

He said that the city was issued a violation on Wednesday, but had immediately corrected the issue and placed detectors throughout the facility.

“While the fire marshals were on scene, the city had already purchased the devices and started installing them right there,” Uttaro said.

Up until several years ago, Kemins said that for years, the Ice Arena had been privately operated.

“The law requiring [CO alarms] is a fairly new law and obviously that building … was under private control for so long,” Kemins said. “Obviously, it is being brought up to code, and the city is in the process of updating all of its buildings to the highest safety standards required.”