Wednesday's fire in the Canada Games Centre is being deemed as minor.

The late-morning fire broke out in an air handling system between the two ice rinks.

It will not delay the ATCO rink's planned Nov.14 opening, Art Manhire, the centre's indoor facilities manager, told reporters at a news conference alongside Fire Chief Clive Sparks Wednesday afternoon.

The Northwestel Ice, which opened earlier this week, was closed yesterday but was already up and running as of this morning.

Two hours after the fire, Manhire and Sparks were confident the fire started due to a malfunctioning desiccant wheel. That is the integral part of the air handling system used to remove moisture from the air and pump it outside.

The wheel is brand new (as part of last June's major fire restoration project), custom-made and cost $45,000. It took four weeks to manufacture in the United States and another few weeks for shipping.

That whole process will have to happen again.

Luckily, the games centre has two air handling systems and both rinks can function one just one — especially when it's cold outside.

" I guess fortunate is a way to look at the situation, but it's not something that we want to be dealing with,” said Manhire.

He does not yet know whether the wheel stopped turning due to a manufacturing problem, or something else.

Staff noticed the fire shortly before noon Wednesday while hanging artwork in the leisure ice area.

Someone saw smoke coming from the back of the building. Staff responded with fire extinguishers and by alerting the fire department.

At the time, the floor in the ATCO arena was cooling and just a few hours away from being flooded.

"We got a call shortly before noon about an alarm ringing,” said Sparks.

" The fire was contained to an air handling unit, and 99 per cent of the smoke went outside building, so we didn't have to evacuate.”

Firefighters monitored carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide levels in the building and deemed everywhere not in the immediate area of the fire safe.

"It was pretty minor fire in the whole scheme of things,” said Sparks.

But for Manhire and games centre staff, dealing with another fire— even if it was small— just adds to the emotions they've been dealing with since June's fire, which caused upwards of $5 million damage.

Two female minors were charged with setting that blaze. Their cases remain before the courts.

"This has been an extremely emotional situation for everybody here,” said Manhire.

"We're at a point we're hanging artwork, we're getting ready to see the tail end of this, and to face the prospect of potentially more damage is, at best, a difficult thing.”

Artwork damaged in June fire is now restored ...