A bit after midnight on March 5, Matt Galas stood in a strip mall parking lot in Villa Park, watching the lighting and appliances store above his beloved curling facility burn.
A police officer came over to the hopeless Galas, who had been staring for about 45 minutes, and told him to go home. The space was about to get destroyed.
“They were about to pump and just douse the place with water,” said Galas, one of Windy City Curling’s founders. “And as we all know, water does amazing things. Making ice is one of them that we normally have, but it also finds every crack and crevice and finds the lowest spot, which was our space.”
On Thursday night, the club’s three sheets — the 150-foot-long frozen playing surfaces of the sport — were alive with activity, including stone sliding and broom sweeping, by members of the club’s “balanced” league.
This week, for the first time since the fire, club members could participate in league play, beginning with Sunday’s brunch league. The club’s ice maker had flooded the sheets with water every 12 hours for about two weeks to get them ready. The fridges behind the bar in the lounge were stocked with beer. One middle-aged member said the excitement he felt was like the feeling of going back to college.
Tate Barry, who returned to the club to captain a team in the Thursday night league after playing Tuesday, said she’s been curling since the mid-aughts and joined Windy City Curling after moving to Chicago last year. The 32-year-old, who plays two nights a week to meet more people, was worried other members weren’t going to remember her when league play resumed because she was so new when the fire happened.
“The curling is not the most important part,” Tate said. “It really is just like a multigenerational group of people who care about you and would notice if you were gone. So the sport is fun, but we all get a round after the game, and that’s the important part.”
After typically eight or 10 “ends” of curling, which take about 15 minutes, the team that won the match will buy the losers a round of drinks. If players stick around for a second round, the losing team buys. After the first two rounds, people are usually on their own for drinks.
Barry said she wanted to help repair the damage to the club space inflicted by the firefighters’ hoses, but much of the work needed to be done by professionals.
“I volunteered one day but mostly came back and everything was exactly how we left it before the flood,” said Barry, who started curling in Racine, Wisconsin — a state with many clubs. “I’m sure the board members don’t feel that way, but that’s how it feels as a layperson.”
Obvious and subtle evidence of the fire still exists. There’s the new furniture and carpet. The lighting store upstairs is boarded up with plywood.
Along a long hallway that connects the main lounge to another open area with a pool table and other games, pins from curling clubs around the world are displayed on a wall. Across from the pins hang about a dozen framed photographs that chronicle the space’s transformation from a 1980s Department of Health and Human Services cubicle farm to a curling facility in 2019.
Some of the photos have water damage.
Windy City Curling was established in 2012. At first, club members competed in curling tournaments called bonspiels that were hosted by other groups. From 2014 until the Villa Park facility opened, the club organized leagues that competed at ice skating rinks in Woodridge and Bolingbrook. Around the time of the fire, according to Galas, the club had roughly 150 members.
Eric Reithel, a director-at-large on the club’s board, said many people are first drawn to curling after seeing it while watching the Olympics.
“It’s a tale as old as time,” said Reithel, 39. “You see it on the Olympics, and you think that looks like a lot of fun and it looks like something anyone can do. And the wonderful thing about that is that as a sport, it is. Anyone can be taught how to curl in an evening.”
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Galas, who began curling in 2006 after seeing it during the Olympics, said the club had nearly 200 members around the time of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Windy City Curling’s facility is used for more than just the leagues. People can book the space for private parties and corporate events. The club also hosts curling classes.
Galas, 45, said seeing people experience curling for the first time takes him back to 2006 when he first tried the sport. It makes him remember the excitement he felt when, during the car ride home, a friend mentioned he would do it again if anyone else was interested.
“Before he even finished the sentence, I was like, ‘I’m in,’” Galas said.
The sport of curling, when Galas returned to assess the damage from the dousing, found a way to deliver a very different set of feelings to Galas.
The facility was smokey. Water fell from the ceiling like rain and formed puddles. The power was out so the sheets melted. Galas turned to Scott Maples, the ice maker, and with tears in his eyes told Maples he didn’t know if he could rebuild.
Galas had been woken up by a call from the fire department around 11:45 p.m. on March 4. Most of the time — but not then — having a curling facility in a basement is advantageous since it’s easier to make ice underground because it’s cooler there. (One can access the club’s lounge and curling space by walking through the club’s front entrance, which is to the right of the lighting store’s entrance, and then descending a set of stairs that curves to the left.)
After receiving the call, Galas drove to the club. He was able to walk through the facility and look at the damage, which he thought could be repaired in a few days. Firefighters left and Galas lingered to move furniture away from dripping water.
Then he heard some noises coming from above and a pop.
“It wasn’t like an explosion, but it was loud enough to jar me, and it scared me,” Galas said. “So I started to walk up the stairs and I smelled and saw smoke.”
Galas called 911 and firefighters returned. Galas watched the scene for about 45 minutes and was told to go home. On his way home, Galas thought he might be able to prevent the “chiller” that made the ice from being damaged if he shut it off. So Galas pulled a U-turn to return to the club and was pulled over in the process.
After Galas explained the situation, the officer let Galas go. He turned the chiller off and then went home. Around 4:30 a.m., Galas got a call and was informed the fire was out. Galas asked the person who called him if people at the scene could remove the curling stones from the melted sheets since the water could damage them. The stones were removed, and $20,000 worth of granite was saved.
Galas returned after the sun rose, and he later made his confession to Maples. On the evening of March 6, club members returned to gather their belongings from the lockers, and, in the process, they inspired Galas to rebuild.
“As our members came in — we’re all mourning this loss — but the spirit of our members, the energy from them, really made me want to rebuild,” Galas said. “Or, I realized I needed to rebuild for the community.”
Windy City Curling normally has leagues that run from August to May. Play in eight leagues will begin by the end of this month. Curling classes are also scheduled for November and December.
