By Joe Sutton and Faith Karimi
(CNN) — A carbon monoxide leak at a Wisconsin ice rink left 81 people hospitalized — and an ice resurfacing machine could be to blame.
The leak occurred Saturday at the end of a minor league hockey game between the Dells Ducks and the Ice Hawks in Lake Delton.
Dozens of people were treated at local hospitals for dizziness, nausea, headaches, vomiting and fainting, authorities said.
Delton Fire Department officials said the cause of the leak was the rink’s resurfacing machine, CNN affiliate WISC reported.
The incident started when several players complained of headaches and dizziness. Some had vomited and one had fainted, the Delton Fire Department said in a statement.
It said it recorded high readings of the gas from inside the Poppy Waterman Ice Rink, but at the time of the leak, many hockey players, staff and spectators had left.
Fire and emergency personnel went to various locations to seek out those who had attended the game and transport them to hospital, the fire department said.
Activities at the ice rink were canceled for Monday.
“The good thing about this is a lot of people got sick all at once, so it was recognized quickly and the exposure was pretty limited,” Matt Lazio, director of St. Clare’s emergency department, told WISC. “But this is a potentially fatal kind of poisoning.”
