Saturday 26 May 2018

Europa Park Fire - 26th May 2018

This morning, in Australia, we woke to some very dramatic theme park news from German Theme Park Europa Park, where a large fire broke out in the Scandinavian area of the park. The initial images looked incredibly dramatic, as this fire roared up to 15m into the air, it was reported.






We had confirmation from Michael Mack, the managing director of Europa Park, that the fire had destroyed the Pirates in Batavia dark ride, and also the Norway section completely, however there was no recorded injuries, and the fire appears to be contained, as Iceland (the area behind it) and the Blue Fire Megacoaster appear to be unharmed.




I heard reports of staff from the park on their days off, and after there shifts joined firefighters in attempting to contain the blaze and manage getting the park evacuated safely. That is a fantastic effort by the staff and emergency services to both keep it isolate to the part of the park, which is completely surrounded by park, and to have no injuries recorded. I heard that only part of the park was actually evacuated, and indeed a number of rides continued operating while the blaze was brought under control. Which can be seen in the twitter photo above from the top of the Euro-Mir.



Scandinavia in 2010.

I feel a bit of a personal connection to this park, as it was during an overseas trip through Europe that my dormant obsession with theme parks was re-ignited and Europa Park was a very big part of that. We know that in time they will rebuild, but it's still tough to see such a highly themed area damaged in such a brutal way.



Our thoughts are with the staff of Europa Park that have poured their hearts into it. People in the industry know this park is a safe and well maintained park, so while it's to early to know the cause they certainly get the benefit of the doubt until we know more.


Let's hope that Europa Park can rebuild in a bigger and stronger in the future, as it is deservedly a very popular and loved park.









2 comments:

  1. So good no one was injured though - it looks like it was very intense!

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    1. It was! Such a beautiful park. I'm thinking of cutting some of our footage from back then and putting it up on my YouTube Channel.

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