On Dec. 17, 2025, an explosion rocked the arena at the small southern Alberta town of Taber.
A spark ignited a propane leak in the Zamboni room, destroying walls and launching the exterior Zamboni door across the parking lot.
“Dec. 17 was a difficult day for all around our community and the area,” said Andrew Prokop, Taber mayor.
Nobody was injured, but the explosion caused significant damage to the building, which is the only ice rink in the community and also houses the curling centre.
“Originally, we were quoted a $10.8 million repair cost. Most of that would have been covered by insurance, but $4.3 million was not covered,” said town CAO Derrin Thibault.
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He says it was a long road to get to a point where they could finally welcome back skaters, which they did on Friday.
“It feels like 40-50 pounds off my back. This was an aggressive target to meet and we were able to meet it.”
It was all smiles in the arena when the ribbon was cut, cake was served and skaters tested the ice — all made possible by the town winning Kraft Hockeyville 2026.
“We’re thrilled we were able to win that and the $300,000 all total that will go a long ways to the repair and bills required for the rebuild,” said Prokop.
Despite having already spent a substantial amount of money to get to this point, the work is far from done.
“We haven’t made any final decisions on the small ice (rink) but we will definitely be getting the curling rink ice up and running, ideally as close to the season opener as possible,” said Prokop.
Overall, the experience from explosion to Hockeyville to first skates back on the ice have shown the entirety of southern Alberta will band together when needed.
“Credit to minor hockey — they didn’t lose any games. They managed to fit their games in elsewhere, very grateful to the municipalities that had ice available to us.”
As part of the celebrations on Friday, Taber also inducted two new members onto its wall of honour. Gerry Beckie and Joe Orban.
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