Zamboni explodes; fire destroys arena

MPLS Star & Sickle ^ | 12-20-04 | Larry Oakes

[Rakkasan1]

DULUTH -- A Duluth hockey arena was destroyed and at least two people suffered minor injuries Sunday night after a Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine exploded during a broomball game, starting a major fire and sending players and spectators fleeing.

"It looked like the Zamboni doors flew off onto the ice," a player told KDLH-TV in Duluth, referring to the doors of the enclosure in which the Zamboni sat while waiting to go on to the ice. The explosion happened about 9:40 p.m. at Peterson Arena, 3501 Grand Av. in west Duluth.

The witness said the explosion started ceiling insulation on fire, and the building was quickly engulfed.

"There were people on the ice that got hit by the doors," the player told the television station. "We all just ran out of there. I think everybody got out."

Battling the fireAssociated PressA nursing supervisor at St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth said this morning that one person was treated at the hospital and released.

Player Ryan Ringsred, who was bandaged, picked small pieces

[Junior]

Cool!

[Argh]

Huh. I've never heard of this happening before.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

Frank J. Zamboni 1901-1988

If necessity is the mother of invention, Frank J. Zamboni might be considered its father. This tireless inventor/entrepreneur never came across an obstacle he couldn't tinker his way around.

Frank moved to Southern California in 1922 with his brother Lawrence to join their older brother George in his auto repair business. After a short time tinkering on cars, the two younger Zambonis decided to open an electrical service business catering to the local dairy industry. The brothers built and installed the large refrigerator units dairies used to keep their milk cool.

When the demand for cooling expanded into the produce industry, the brothers expanded their business vision, as well: they built a plant that made the block ice that wholesalers used to pack their product for transport by rail across the country. But as refrigeration technology improved, demand for block ice began to shrink, and Frank and Lawrence started looking for other ways to capitalize on their expertise with ice.

That opportunity came in the sport of ice skating. Popularity of the sport was growing, but there were few rinks in Southern California, so in 1939 Frank, Lawrence, and a cousin built Iceland Skating Rink in Paramount. (The rink still operates today just blocks from the Zamboni® factory. In fact, it's not unusual to see Zamboni ice resurfacers driving down the neighborhood streets on their way to be tested at Iceland.)

Iceland opened in 1940 as one of the largest rinks in the country, with 20,000 sq. ft. of iced surface -- that's enough room for 800 skaters. The original rink was an open-air facility. But the brothers soon learned that, with the intense Southern California sun and dry desert winds, the quality of their ice sheet was less than adequate, so they covered it with a domed roof. The challenge now was to maintain this much-improved indoor surface.

At the time, resurfacing the ice meant pulling a scraper behind a tractor, shaving the surface. Three or four workers would scoop away the shavings, spray water over the surface, squeegee it clean and allow the water to freeze -- a process that took more than an hour. For Frank, it was a puzzle to be solved: how could he make a good sheet of ice in a short period of time? It wasn't long before he began engineering a machine that would make the task of ice-resurfacing fast and efficient. And the concept of the Zamboni ice resurfacer was born...

[Rakkasan1]

I know I've heard it at games for around 10 years now.

[Ciexyz]

Thanks to FR, I now know what a Zamboni is.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

A small vw gasoline engine is one type of power plant often found in Zambonis. Also found are propane and electric power plants.

[GOPrincess]

I used to work for a firm that dealt with the Zamboni family. They were very nice people.

[headsonpikes]

The Canadian Redneck Zamboni is powered by a squad of Yankee refugee lefties on a skookum hamster wheel.

[RichInOC]

WHAT HAPPEN?

[Ichneumon]

Zamboni explodes; fire destroys arena

Now there's a headline you don't see every day...

[xJones]

Thanks to FR, I now know what a Zamboni is.

Me too, but I must have missed any report of what happened to the driver on the back of that Zamboni.

[yankeedame]

I went to a Fight and a hockey game broke out.......

I went to a broom-ball game and a fire broke out.......

"Go get elimated!"

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I think the driver is now orbiting Mars.

[yankeedame]

Huh. I've never heard of this happening before.

Well, Republicans are in power....
(I mean you never hear of this sort of thing happening under a Democratic administration.)

[Puckster]

Hey, watch it, I resemble that remark.

[Rakkasan1]

[airborne]

Hockey Ping!

[ArrogantBustard]

Zam boni set up us the bomb!

[Damifino]

I guess I'm not the only one that is really pi$$ed about the NHL lockout.

[Puckster]

Propane!