Disneyland Fantasmic Dragon Engulfed in Flames

gerarar

gerarar

Premium Member
Supreme Leader said:
The pyro launchers in the head have been there since the dragon debuted in 2009.
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Ah yeah you're right, I misremembered. Updated my original post.

It still looks like they got an upgrade. The 2017 pyro looks bigger and also crackles. Plus they upgraded the other pyro launchers in the show, so I'd imagine these got a similar upgrade/overhaul as well.

Still begs the question if Garner Holt was involved with the 2017 update as I'm sure the dragon got some upgrades internally.
 
chadwpalm

chadwpalm

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
flynnibus said:
You don't need to go under the riverbed - fixed pipe could be installed above ground. The issue is more the guide rail, which maybe they would need to go under. (maybe total clearance is an issue - but less likely.. standpipe installs are commonly 4"). Or, you could install a self-contained on-demand system on the island that reused the river water itself as a source.

I don't think the dragon's skin is all that much of a concern here, unless they found it failed in some toxic manner. It's never going to be a fire containment system in itself. Even if the structure is designed to contain a fire to just a portion of the overall structure it is only going to be designed for a time limit. I think they would be more concerned with the safety responses for the effects and powered systems in the dragon. Since clearly they were unable to fully dump or block the flammable fluids from the structure after the fire had started.
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The sky is blue.
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.
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Just sitting here waiting for you to tell me it's not.
 
DrAlice

DrAlice

Well-Known Member
chadwpalm said:
TSI is grandfathered into the park. It was built before Fantasmic! existed. There are no fire hydrants on the island due to that and it would be a major undertaking and destruction of the riverbed to install one. This incident will improve upon this in some way or another. Either putting in a water system to deal with this or rebuild the dragon with a more fire retardant material.
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Wait... they built a "burning settler's cabin" on the island without fire hydrants? huh. It's crazy to think about how much codes have changed in a few decades.
 
Disney Analyst

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
Disone said:
4/28 reopening in B mode??? Color me surprised but this matching someone who said that the lift for the dragon still worked and they lowered it after the fire was extinguished but the head still stuck out because normally the dragon fold up to firing the pit.
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Yeah, that was me!

I assume the lift itself is a bit metal plate, so it likely contained the fire to the surface of the stage. Which is why it was able to be lowered down to hide most the damaged body while they work on removing the dragon.
 
S

Sailor310

Well-Known Member
Cliff said:
The show is surrounded by water. How much would it have cost Disney to install 4 or 5 jet pumps in the water with nozzels pointed right at the dragon? Flick an emergecy switch and the stage is blasted with an unlimited supply of water.

That would have been a VERY cheap solutuon that would have stopped this in seconds...and probably would have
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THEMEPARKPIONEER

THEMEPARKPIONEER

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
These types of effects use a fuel source like propane or natural gas, and while they’re stored as a liquid their boiling point is so low that they would not pour out like that. What is seen is some other fluid, not the fuel source.
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Must have been the water trailing that fuel source, also pr why they gave up
 
S

Sailor310

Well-Known Member
Back to evacuations, if they directed right side of the crowd to Frontierland, those in back out through Adventureland, those on the left out towards Splash Mountain, it seems like they could have gotten folks clear pretty quickly.
Also, I'm happy but surprised some of the building didn't burn.

Also 2, I'm surprised that the hydraulic fluid burned so fiercely-if it was the hydraulic fluid. I'm going back and looking at flammability and flash points of hydraulic fluids. In the 80s I worked on developing, building and installing ground hydraulic pumping units to service the space shuttle at the launch pad the AF was building at Vandenberg AFB- 2 hours north of LA. We finished most of it, but never launched a shuttle there. Anyway, as I remember, we hardly ever talked about fire being an issue. We had three units in the OMCF- a big hanger for processing the orbiter and five units in the launch pad to service the orbiter and Solid Rocket Boosters. I don't remember us adding any additional fire sensing/suppression gear for the hydraulic units. It could be that there was plenty of protection already installed in the facilities, but after watching Murphy burn, I'm surprised that we didn't worry about fire more.
 
chadwpalm

chadwpalm

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
flynnibus said:
Yawwwwnnn... Would you like a pillow for your seat too?
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That would be lovely, thanks!

My point is that you spent however many posts trying to convince people that Disney did a poor job of handling the situation, then I come in and post first-hand experience and you double down on your rhetoric.

There's probably what.......3000+ people tightly packed around the River outnumbering CMs 100 to 1 and those CMs doing their best to both keep calm and direct people that want to stand around and film out of the area to me was commendable. Every security guard in the park was called over to assist and get people out of there so the fire department can get in without incident. For there to be no injuries and only minimal damage to the stage I believe the CMs and the fire department did a great job in this situation.

If you want to believe otherwise that's your prerogative, but as someone who was there I feel I can share a much better perspective than what you only have seen through phone camera lenses. Your idea of how long it should have taken to get the fire out has no bearing on the reality of the situation.
 
SuddenStorm

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
What's crazy is stuff like this doesn't just happen. This was 100% a maintenance issue that could have been prevented and never should have happened.

Which begs the question- has Disney changed their preventative maintenance/inspections since covid?

We've seen decreased ride reliability and show conditions across the resort suffer- not to mention flooding the small world control area and the fire at the NOS train station last year. But now, the maintenance mishaps have crossed into 'serious safety concern' territory.
 
Figments Friend

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
So I have spent some time looking over a couple different video clips of the point of the show right before the fire started.
Some notable observations :

The last flame Maleficent shoots from her mouth to ‘light’ the water on fire was not a full flame and was not at full strength.
It was mostly just spray, with a weakened small fire ball.
Not the norm.

Soon afterwards, you can plainly see liquid dripping steadily from the mouth…right at the point of the show when the dragon turns to look down at Mickey.
The liquid bleeding turns into an obvious shower and it is literally pouring out from under the head and jaw.
Why no one from the control deck saw this should be questioned.

Right after this point , when the pyro would fire from the head as Mickey ‘shoots’ her with his magic, the head ignites in a small flame and then quickly grows.
So it looks to me like a hydraulic line burst and the ignition to set off the pyro sparked the fire.

I’m no expert…but the liquid pouring out of the underside of the head is very obvious right after that final shooting flame from the mouth.
If someone noticed this in time before the pyro ignition, this might have not happened.

-
 
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PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
SuddenStorm said:
What's crazy is stuff like this doesn't just happen. This was 100% a maintenance issue that could have been prevented and never should have happened.

Which begs the question- has Disney changed their preventative maintenance/inspections since covid?

We've seen decreased ride reliability and show conditions across the resort suffer- not to mention flooding the small world control area and the fire at the NOS train station last year. But now, the maintenance mishaps have crossed into 'serious safety concern' territory.
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I imagine it's less that they changed standards and more that staffing has continually been an issue. From my perspective, this incident aside, from afar it was looking like the park finally had its act more or less together, with proper refurbs happening, almost everything back finally, and so on. It's certainly possible that in their attempt to just keep the place functioning as best they could with the crews they had, things were missed or overlooked that wouldn't ordinarily have been so..

Are bad show conditions still continuing? I haven't heard the complaints this year as I did last year, which is part of the reason I had concluded that overall things were getting better.
 

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