EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally said the dome collapsed on Friday night. It has been corrected to say it happened on Tuesday night. We regret the error.
Security crews remained at the Golf Dome early Wednesday morning after the Calgary Fire Department deployed its technical rescue team to the area Tuesday night after the dome collapsed.
The CFD told Global News the collapse at 50 50 Avenue S.E. was reported to them just after 9 p.m. The rescue team was sent to respond in case someone was inside but the fire department said nobody was there at the time.
“Our process was to arrive and we made sure that there was no one inside the tent, nobody trapped. And then from there, we’re just trying to make the scene safe so we’ll look at shutting off the water and controlling any electrical or heating that may pose a fire risk,” acting central district chief Mike May with the CFD said.
Staff were escorted in after the collapse so they could salvage office equipment and other materials.
The acting central district chief suspects that the Golf Dome collapsed due to heavy snowfall. Calgary was hit with a major winter storm earlier in the day.
The CFD said it was told workers had noticed flat spots on the top of the dome earlier in the day, prompting them to take steps to increase support for the dome, which is held up by fans that maintain air pressure. The fire department said the fans may have shorted out but that it was too soon to say for certain if that was what happened.
A fire official told Global News staff were planning to try to prop up the dome again later this week and that in the meantime, the city would be shutting off power and water to the building once it has completely deflated.
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