Ten-year-old Seth Denny was at his school’s Christmas concert in Taber, Alta., when he heard there was an explosion at his town’s recreation facility.
Denny, who plays for one of the town’s under-11 Oil Kings teams, said he was close to tears when he found out the Taber Community Centre was closed indefinitely after the Dec. 17 blast.
“This is, in a way, my second home. And I love this place,” he told CBC News from out front of the facility normally home to hockey, curling and figure skating programs.
Now Denny and hundreds of others who used the recreation centre’s rinks, sheets, archery range and health club are forced to travel at least half an hour away to play.
“Sadly we only get one practice a week now,” said Weston Valgardson, who also plays in Taber minor hockey’s under-11 program.
The facility remains on lockdown as damage is assessed before the town considers what will come next.
But many in Taber are determined to help restore the arena considered so crucial to their lives and, to that end, are supporting the town’s new bid to win the Kraft Hockeyville contest, which awards communities cash prizes for upgrading their local home arenas.
‘Heartbeat of Taber’
In Taber’s nomination video, the town’s communications manager Meghan Brennan calls the community centre the “heartbeat of Taber.”
“For generations, this building held our stories and, in a moment, everything changed,” she says over a video clip of the explosion.
“The doors blew open, the ice went quiet and the place where we gathered, where so many memories lived, was suddenly dark.”
WATCH | Taber’s 2026 entry into Kraft Hockeyville:
If Taber were to win Hockeyville, the funding would go directly to “rebuilding and upgrading our arena,” according to Brennan.
“This rink raised us and now we’re ready to raise it back.”
Kraft Hienz has expanded the format for 2026 as it marks the 20th year of the Hockeyville contest.
While the nomination video counts for 80 per cent of a scoring total, the rest is determined by community rally points earned by people showing support on Taber’s official submission page.
There are six phases to the Kraft Hockeyville contest, including a vote to determine the overall winner. (Kraft Hockeyville website)
After the nomination and rally stage ends March 1, judges will determine a winner from each province and territory.
From those, they will select two finalists who will go head-to-head in a nationwide vote in April.
First place wins $250,000 for facility upgrades and the opportunity to host a National Hockey League pre-season game.
The entrance to the Taber Community Centre’s Zamboni room was boarded up after the explosion, which saw flames send the door flying in a video released by the Town of Taber. (Eli Ridder/CBC)
The top two runner-up receives $100,000. The 11 provincial and territorial winners each get $50,000.
Taber’s mayor Andrew Prokop said winning the Hockeyville contest would be “phenomenal” for the restoration effort.
“Timing-wise, it would certainly help our current situation with taking some of the pressures off,” Prokop said.
Taber Mayor Andrew Prokop says winning the Kraft Hockeyville contest would be a major boost for the town’s future arena plans. (Eli Ridder/CBC)
He acknowledged in a Wednesday news conference the contest is “not a complete solution” and the town will have to make decisions in the near-future about what comes next for the facility.
Prokop also said talks were already underway on upgrades or a replacement for the arena.
‘Lightning in a bottle’
The group running Taber’s Hockeyville bid is receiving advice from the only Alberta community to win the national prize since the contest first ran in 2006.
Graham Parsons, who was involved with Sylvan Lake’s successful 2014 Kraft Hockeyville campaign, said the immediacy of Taber’s situation needs makes it compelling.
“It just happened,” Parsons said of the Dec. 17 explosion.
He drew a comparison to Sylvan Lake’s pitch, made after the town’s rink’s roof collapsed due to heavy snowfall and rendered its arena unusable.
“We called it lighting in a bottle for our campaign, and this feels very similar,” Parsons added.
Calgary Flames’ Kris Versteeg skates during a team practice in Calgary, Monday, April 10, 2017. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Former NHL right winger Kris Versteeg, who’s from Lethbridge, has helped run a two-week hockey camp every August out of the Taber community centre for the last 15 years. He has said he’s available to lend a hand to the town.
“Whatever way they would need me, I’d always want to support that community and making sure those kids have a facility to play at,” Versteeg said in an interview.
Lethbridge, Vauxhall and Burdett, among other communities, have offered valuable rink time in the weeks since the arena was shuttered.
An image hangs in the town office showing Taber’s first community centre being constructed in 1951. It was destroyed by fire in January 1969, before the current arena was built. (Eli Ridder/CBC)
Dionne McCracken, Taber minor hockey’s volunteer registrar, said she hopes those communities will now support the town’s Hockeyville campaign.
“Hockey is one big family, everybody takes care of everybody and we really have seen that” McCracken said.
The winner of Kraft Hockeyville will be announced April 4. Taber previously mounted an unsuccessful campaign to win the contest in 2020.
Fuel system failure
A third-party investigation found the explosion was caused by a fuel system failure on a Zamboni that led to a propane gas leak, officials said Wednesday.
When the gas reached an electrical heater, identified as the source of the ignition, it caused the detonation inside the centre’s Zamboni room.
Cleaning debris from the blast can’t start until after the town receives the results of hazardous materials testing, the town’s administrator Derrin Thibault said.
An explosion at the Taber Community Centre caused by a fuel system failure turned interior walls to rubble and damaged rinks used for hockey, curling and figure skating. (Town of Taber)
Prokop said this week there’s “quite a lot of legwork left” as the town waits to hear the total damage cost from insurance and determine the best strategy moving forward.
It’s not the first time Taber’s main recreation facility has been damaged.
Its first community centre, constructed in the 1950s, was destroyed by fire in January 1969. Construction of its replacement was completed the following year and has served the town since.