News Dragon caught fire in today’s Festival of Fantasy parade

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
If it takes them three months just to replace the head, I'm wondering how long it took them just to make this whole float...
Unfortunately a lot more goes into it than just making a new head. The investigation into what went wrong took time, and it's likely that production on new elements would not start until after that was concluded - no sense building a replacement that's exactly the same as the last one if changes can be made to avoid a similar incident.

It's difficult to say without knowing the real extent of the damage what needs to be done to get this float back up to speed, but it may not be as simple as just molding a new head and popping it on the old body. It does happen with fire that more damage can be done in the effort to extinguish the flame quickly than the fire did itself. I won't assume that's the case here, but it is possible that other parts of the float that did not directly catch fire are in need of repair from this incident.

I hope it's been determined that it's just a matter of making some replacement parts and putting them on the existing float, but even if it is these past three months have not been just about doing that. They have to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent going forward.
 

cjkeating

Well-Known Member
DLP insiders say the Parisian fire system is different to the Floridian system so it is possible they could just modify the WDW dragon to the DLP dragon system? Obviously this could take time if the innards of the dragon require replacing etc. rather than just a new head.
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
How long has the Parisian Dragon been in use compared to the Floridian one? also what about temps? what is the avg temp on Disney's Paris property vs Florida's?
They could be the same system but the temps on Florida were way higher and the longer usage took its toll.
 

larryz

I'm Just A Tourist!
Premium Member
DLP insiders say the Parisian fire system is different to the Floridian system so it is possible they could just modify the WDW dragon to the DLP dragon system? Obviously this could take time if the innards of the dragon require replacing etc. rather than just a new head.
Well, the Parisian Dragon runs under EU occupational safety rules... clearly it would take years of adaptation to make it conform to OSHA requirements. Not to mention metric vs SAE fittings, Russian vs American LP gas, etc...
 

JohnD

Well-Known Member
The gazebo will be leaving FoF sometime this week in order for it to be readied for BtY. Maleficent will make her triumphant return later in the Fall.

Due to past experience, they should have a backup. Then they could rotate them to minimize wear and tear. Should another one decide to give a, um, combustible performance, the other one will be ready the next day.
 

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