On Dec. 17, 2025, an explosion rocked the small southern Alberta city of Taber.
A spark ignited a propane leak within the Zamboni room, destroying partitions and launching the outside Zamboni door throughout the car parking zone.
“Dec. 17 was a troublesome day for throughout our group and the realm,” mentioned Andrew Prokop, Taber mayor.
No person was injured, however the explosion induced vital injury to the constructing, which is the one ice rink in the neighborhood and in addition homes the curling centre.
“Initially, we had been quoted a $10.8 million restore price. Most of that might have been coated by insurance coverage, however $4.3 million was not coated,” mentioned city CAO Derrin Thibault.
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He says it was a protracted street to get to a degree the place they might lastly welcome again skaters, which they did on Friday.
“It seems like 40-50 kilos off my again. This was an aggressive goal to fulfill and we had been in a position to meet it.”
It was all smiles within the area when the ribbon was minimize, cake was served and skaters examined the ice — all made doable by the city profitable Kraft Hockeyville 2026.
“We’re thrilled we had been in a position to win that and the $300,000 all whole that may go a protracted methods to the restore and payments required for the rebuild,” mentioned Prokop.
Regardless of having already spent a considerable amount of cash to get up to now, the work is much from achieved.
“We haven’t made any ultimate selections on the small ice (rink) however we will certainly be getting the curling rink ice up and operating, ideally as near the season opener as doable,” mentioned Prokop.
General, the expertise from explosion to Hockeyville to first skates again on the ice have proven everything of southern Alberta will band collectively when wanted.
“Credit score to minor hockey — they didn’t lose any video games. They managed to suit their video games in elsewhere, very grateful to the municipalities that had ice accessible to us.”
As a part of the celebrations on Friday, Taber additionally inducted two new members onto its wall of honour. Gerry Beckie and Joe Orban.
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