Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 25, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba Sunday weve got sunday Magazine Azine Winnipeg free press Margo Goodhand 6977076 d m9 i four Days of madness Rio rocks to carnivals Salsa beat the great to turnoff statistics show that Channel surfing is a dying Art with Good reason positive friends and family help injured smelter worker get his life Back recovering from horror exclusive almost seven months a series of explosions ripped through the flin flon killing 33 year old Steve Ewing and leaving others physically and psychologically scarred for company officials refused to comment for this Spe Cial citing four safety related charges that Are still before the but after months of silence and some of those affected by the blast in this company town agreed to sit Down with free press reporter Tracy Tjaden and photographer Phil Hossack last Here Are their stories by Tracy Tjaden Annie Prudens recipe for Healing the Gimple a positive Outlook an the support of couple Doest v have after being Janell and they say focusing on the Back i believe if you let the negative it said Connie a special needs education anger will drag you to a bad we dont want her husband added softly during a recent its not the time to bring misery in their comfortable Home in a tiny suburb a few minutes drive from flin the couple flips with ease Between tears and laughter As they recount the their lives became after a massive explosion in August ripped through the smelter where Pru Den and if theres a connection Between hockey and Healing when Burns have left half of your body swollen and Roland Pruden found it and made it the focal Point of getting doctors told the feisty 39yearold hed be Lucky to be out of Hospital by but Roland decided instead to shoot for thanksgiving weekend the season opener for Thomp sons Norman the triple midget team his 17yearold son Derrick plays doctors said it want possible Connie says now she was crazy to let him do it but Roland arrived at the game in a wheelchair with players on both was asked to drop the puck with his son amid a standing there want a dry Eye in the Connie the tears were quickly drowned out by cheers when Derrick scored his first goal 28 seconds into the game and later added another goal and an winning him player the game every moment seems precious to this which was nearly ripped apart by the worst Accident in the mines Roland his hands and All visible skin covered in bumpy red scars greets visitors with a Calm Confidence and warm manner that almost masks the deep psychological in addition to pain killers and sleeping Roland wears Gore Tex Tensor wraps under his clothes on much of his body at All times to Force the Sld to heal Flat after massive Burns and major skin he also wears glasses now where he didst before doctors say he could go the steam and Calcine Burns left blisters on his Eye balls and As his face the scars slowly pull on the skin around his eyes and could prevent them from closing his last plastic surgery a month ago produced and there Are at least two More operations to life was Good before the August Accident in Hudson Bay mining smelting main reverberate by fur Connie says she and Roland were typical hockey whose lives revolved around fishing and camping life was Good and in an it was coming up on his 12th year at the Roland whose father worked at the mine and two Brothers still do want a stranger to the inherent workplace hed been Hurt twice himself and witnessed two friends killed on the after holding Eric Smedegaard body in the 20 minutes before he died in Roland asked to be transferred out of the took off running he worked As a maintenance Man in the bag House the Plant that filters air from the smelter to the stack until a year when changes at the Plant landed him Back in the Roland was working As a slag Tapper the night of the tapping out the Calcine or rough slag from inside of the Furnace and Send ing it out to the when his supervisors gave the he started hosing Down the beams and floor of the Cooling the area and removing he was operating a Hose on the third floor of the Furnace alongside Steve Ewing when the first pop three each with grow ing until the entire Furnace was i remember we looked at each our hats and respirators blew off and we both took off continued please see recovering b2 Roland and Connie Pruden say they dont have time for anger and Roland wears Tensor wrap to Force skin to ;