Fairview Arena faces uncertain future following roof collapse

Concerns raised after arena's roof falls Chris Epp gathers reaction following Tuesday’s collapse of the roof at Fairview Arena.

The Fairview Arena in southeast Calgary is out of commission after the roof collapsed on Tuesday afternoon and officials are working on a plan to safely deal with the situation.

Emergency crews were called to the Fairview Arena and Community Hall located at 8038 Fairmount Drive S.E. at about 4:45 p.m. after the roof caved in.

Fire crews were called to the building on Monday after they were alerted to concerns about the building’s structural integrity and engineers were brought in to assess the situation. Officials determined that the roof was unsafe and a cease occupancy order was issued by city safety code officers.

No injuries were reported as the building had been evacuated but the damage is extensive and officials are concerned that the walls may also collapse. Fire crews have put a safety fence around the perimeter and utilities to the building have been shut off.

On Wednesday afternoon, Greg Steinraths, manager of Calgary Recreation, said the last property condition assessment was completed in 2015 and no structural issues were identified. Steinraths says City of Calgary facilities are assessed every five years, the industry standard, but the City will review it's protocols.

According to Steinraths, the Fairview Women’s Hockey Arena Society and the Indefinite Arts Society share occupancy of the Fairview Arena. “The licence of operation identifies both groups as being responsible for the operations and maintenance of the facility. The facility is built on City land and the City provides funding for consulting services to these community partner organizations through the capital conservation grant team.”

The facility plays host to a number of hockey games and other events and some teams are now scrambling to find ice times at other arenas. A provincial ringette tournament that was to be held at the Fairview Arena has been moved to another arena and games will be played on the weekend of March 23 - 25.

The hall that houses the Indefinite Arts Centre is attached to the arena and shares utilities with the facility. The centre works with artists who have developmental disabilities and also provides art classes and workshops for children and families.

The director of the program, Jung-Suk Ryu, says the arts centre serves hundreds of artists each week and that classes have been cancelled for now.

“Every week close to 250 artists come to this facility spending hours on end developing, creating new works of art and proudly showcasing their creations locally and abroad,” he said. “This is not only a place where people do art, this is a home for many of our artists who come here every week. Some of our artists have been here with this program for over 10 years and so, for the time being, that we may, in fact, have to pull the plug on that program until we find a solution to this issue. It’s a very sad thing for us to share with our artists.”

Ryu says they will look for another space to hold classes while they wait to hear from officials about the future of the facility.

“We have to assess the situation and we still have to hear from the fire folks and other folks involved in assessing and monitoring the extent of the damage and whether that’s impacted our side of the facility,” he said. “Our organization is beginning to think about backup scenarios where we might be looking for larger community spaces to temporarily continue to provide programming for our artists.”

Ward 9 Councillor, Gian-Carlo Carra, says he is working with the arts group and hockey associations to ensure they can continue with their programs. He says city staff members are already working to determine what caused the collapse and to ensure safety measure remain in place at the site.

Greg Steinraths says it is too early to speculate on the future of the Fairview Arena. "We don’t know what was the cause. It’s not even safe enough to go in at this point in time. Once we get cleared, we’ll go in and see what the situation is and make those decisions at that time.”