Gatorland on Fire

[Epcotrob]

I know it is not Disney.
But Gatorland does have some history behind it. One of the old Roadside Attractions is on fire. From what I have heard it looks like the admin and giftshop building were totaly lost. Both old buildings, I do not know if they were some of the original buildings or not. It does make me sad a to see it on fire. Yes it is a tacky tourist trap, but at the same time its almost as well known as WDW. I do hope that none of the animals are in harms way.

Just passing Info along. Sorry if it offends anyone.

 

[Marge10369]

I know it is not Disney.
But Gatorland does have some history behind it. One of the old Roadside Attractions is on fire. From what I have heard it looks like the admin and giftshop building were totaly lost. Both old buildings, I do not know if they were some of the original buildings or not. It does make me sad a to see it on fire. Yes it is a tacky tourist trap, but at the same time its almost as well known as WDW. I do hope that none of the animals are in harms way.

Just passing Info along. Sorry if it offends anyone.

No offense. Thank you for the information

 

[Blizz]

http://www.wesh.com/news/10249357/detail.html

WESH 2 is reporting that they did loose some animals.

 

[marni1971]

This is bad. Thanks for the info.

 

[MnDisneyFan]

We saw it on TV here in MN. Sad to see.

 

[napnet]

Whats bad is they got robbed about 6 months ago losing 50k in equipment

 

[celestia]

oh sad

I live right next to gatorland.
My heart goes out to them.

 

[brkgnews]

Very sad. Thanks for posting.

I always hate to see any attraction go south -- especially one that is so "classic Florida."

 

[metscool]

They were saying that they lost at least two at 9 when it was before Glenn Beck went on this morning.

 

[SpongeScott]

Picture of the fire.

 

[Imaginationeer]

Gatorland is very close to where i live, so from where i am you can see the smoke and smell the burning. Looks pretty bad.

 

[Stitch69]

That is too bad!

 

[metscool]

Picture of the fire.

Wow that looks bad. What was it about 70 something firefighters there for that.

 

[brkgnews]

I'm afraid this photo says it all...

Courtesy WMKG / local6.com

 

[hokielutz]

I'm afraid this photo says it all...

Courtesy WMKG / local6.com

This is just absolutely horrible. I know it is too soon to say whether they will be able to recover, rebuild, and reopen.... but I hope they are able too.

 

[CoffeeJedi]

This SUCKS! I went there as kid with my family. Truly a roadside America icon.
How awesome would it be if Disney, Universal, and Seaworld all donated money to restore it? It'll probably never happen, but it would be great PR.

The Disney Blog has the story too, apparently they think they can reopen in about a week! (sounds a bit optimistic)
http://www.thedisneyblog.com/tdb/2006/11/gatorland_one_o.html

 

[natalia1681]

That is very unfortunate! I hope that no one is hurt!

 

[Nut4Disney]

We went there back in 1978 when I was 7 yrs old, on my first trip to Disney. The front entrance with the alligator mouth was an icon.

 

[Epcot82Guy]

This is very unfortunate. It was a classic roadside attraction. I wish them the best with rebuilding and moving on from this tragedy.

 

[joel_maxwell]

it is very frustrating to me when animals are caught up in such a situation (in cages) and cant escape to only parish by something horrible like fire or flood etc etc. just leaves a very sad feeling when ever this happens.