Video shows Holiday Twin Rinks employees discussing carbon monoxide detector days before closure

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Video obtained and viewed by News 4 appears to show workers at Holiday Twin Rinks discussing the building's carbon monoxide detector four days before the arena was closed due to dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide that resulted in more than 100 people seeking treatment at area hospitals.

In the video sent by a viewer, a person can be heard saying, "The carbon dioxide [sic] detector is going off," followed by inaudible speaking from multiple people. Another person answers, "Yeah, we know, we can't fix it," followed by more inaudible crosstalk.

According to the viewer who provided the clip, the video aired on the livestreaming website LiveBarn, at 11:31 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 23. Kristina Young, head of venues, partners and social for LiveBarn, which sells technology to broadcast amateur sports games at venues across the U.S. and Canada, said the content was owned by the company and declined to allow News 4 to show the footage.

Mark Grundtisch, owner of Holiday Twin Rinks, said he "personally was not aware of what occurred in the video last Saturday at 11:30 p.m."

"This did occur very late at night when the ice had concluded, and the building was about to be closed," Grunditsch said via email. He said the rink's building supervisor was made aware of the issue and went to the rink the morning of Dec. 24 to handle it. The building supervisor, Jim Bender, did not respond to a request for comment.

The rink was evacuated around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday after readings showed a dangerous amount of carbon monoxide in the air. Multiple ambulances responded to the scene to evaluate and transport people to surrounding hospitals.

According to Cheektowaga police, 111 people sought treatment at various hospitals Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Several were treated for carbon monoxide exposure, but none were formally admitted.

A parent of a youth hockey player whose team practiced in the rink on Tuesday told News 4 both he and his son were found to have elevated carbon monoxide in their blood after experiencing symptoms.

In a statement Thursday, Holiday Twin Rinks said it was "obviously disappointed that our CO detector failed us during this terrible event.”

The building was briefly reopened Friday morning but was evacuated and closed through Jan. 1 after carbon monoxide was detected again.

Grunditsch told News 4 Saturday he was "very sorry that this situation has occurred" and said the business has committed to covering all medical expenses incurred.

"I promise that, as a company, we take the health and safety of all of customers very seriously," Grunditsch said. "I only wish we could go backwards and correct what went wrong, but at this time we can only move forward, and fix the air quality issues we have been working through, with the help of the Town of Cheektowaga, National Fuel and private contractors."