Hundreds of people were evacuated from an ice skating rink in Wesley Chapel on Wednesday.
Pasco Fire Rescue initially said the Florida Hospital Center Ice facility was evacuated around 3:30 p.m. due to a high level of carbon monoxide.
Fire Rescue Training Chief Shawn Whited later explained, crews were at the rink on an unrelated call when their carbon monoxide alarms started alerting. As a precaution, they cleared the building. Further investigation revealed the fire department’s equipment is set to alert at a much lower CO level than is acceptable in a building that size.
“Because it is an ice rink, they use a lot of different gases to keep the ice cold. We think we might have some issues with our monitors,” said Whited. “To be abundantly cautious, we wanted to go through this entire building with all of our advanced monitors to make sure that we don’t have a CO issue. “
A spokesman says about 250 to 300 people were evacuated from the rink.
The complex was cleared and reopened for business around 6:30 pm.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
