Ice sheets slide off Cowboys' dome, 6 hurt

ARLINGTON, Texas, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Falling ice Friday injured six people -- one critically -- at Cowboys Stadium, site of Sunday's Super Bowl, NFL officials said.

Sheets of ice and snow slid off the northeast side of the stadium's roof, falling 200 feet as temperatures warmed to 26 degrees and forcing all but one entrance to be blocked off, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Friday marked the fourth day of frigid temperatures, ice and snow in the Dallas area.

"The ice and snow melting off of the Cowboys Stadium roof has caused several sliding snow falls onto the plazas," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the Morning News in an e-mail.

Arlington fire spokesman Lt. Pete Arevalo told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram it's impossible to tell where the sliding ice will land when it starts coming off the dome, the highest domed stadium in the world. An 80-foot perimeter was set up.

"We are not letting anybody around the area until we deem it is safe," said Arevalo.

The injured, who were preparing the stadium for Sunday's Super Bowl XLV, were taken to area hospitals where the two most seriously injured were said to be in stable condition. The other four injuries were described as non-life-threatening, the Morning News said.