Medicine Hat's downtown YMCA was closed part of Monday due to a suspected electrical fire, however fire crews eventually determined no fire had occurred.--NEWS PHOTO KENDALL KING
Concerns of a potential electrical fire temporarily closed the YMCA of Medicine Hat’s downtown location Monday morning, but the facility reopened several hours later, after responders determined there to be no fire.
In a statement, the YMCA said at approximately 8 a.m. Monday morning, one-third of the facility power cut off. While investigating the cause of the partial outage, staff became aware of smoke coming from the pool and hot tub pumps and, believing there to be an electrical fire, evacuated the building.
But fire fighters later determined no fire had occurred. Rather, the power outage was caused when city crews working on an electrical box near the police station blew a fuse, and the smoke was caused by the subsequent overheating of the pool and hot tub control pumps.
The facility remained closed throughout the morning, but was able to reopen shortly after noon, though the pool and hot tubs will remain closed until a full assessment can be conducted of their pumps and mechanical systems.
All regularly scheduled classes and programs were also cancelled Monday, but are expected to resume today.
“I’m just very proud of the team for how quickly they responded to a very unexpected situation,” local YMCA CEO Sharon Hayward told the News. “And I’m confident we’ll have everything back to working order as soon as we can.”
In a Monday evening update, the YMCA said pool and hot tub amenities passed the safety inspection and will reopen today, with the exception of the Ladies Health Plus club hot tub, the pump for which had been significantly damaged. YMCA staff expect the hot tub to be out of commission for the next two to four weeks.
