Dino Eye giant wheel catches fire

[rooster59]

Dino Eye giant wheel catches fire

BANGKOK: Fire broke out at Ferris wheel inside the Dinosaur Planet theme park on Sukhumvit 22 this afternoon but nobody was hurt as it happened while the giant wheel was temporarily put out of service.

The fire happened at about 2.30 pm at a car on the giant wheel prompting the park officials to close the park to facilitate fire engines to fight the fire.

The first fire engine could not reach the raging car which was too high. Later another fire engine with higher ladder arrived and put the fire out shortly afterwards.

The fire could be seen from distance as the giant wheel is high and has no high rise building obstructed its view.

Initially electrical short circuit is suspected to be a cause of the fire.

Dinosaur Planet spokesman said on its Facebook later that the fire was kept under control and nobody was injured from the incident because the park has halted the service of its “Dino Eye” giant wheel as rainstorm was imminent.

The disruption of the service is the park’s normal safety precaution when rain is coming, the park spokesman said.

The park will resume service as usual tomorrow as well as the opening of the new “4D Deep World” zone.

Actual cause of the fire will be made known to the public later, the spokesman said on Facebook.

The theme park just opened on March 25 offering several amusement rides including the Dino Eye wheel structure.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/161721

-- Thai PBS 2016-04-30

[Dagnabbit]

Errr... should this not be made from fire retardant materials?

[katana]

Video of the fire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUjqm0QdJ54

[stoneyboy]

Opened on 25th of March and this occurred a little over one month later,doesn't fill one with confidence does it.

[stoneyboy]

Errr... should this not be made from fire retardant materials?

No it shouldn't catch fire per se.

[Pimay1]

Absolute inferno. I wonder if the car is lined with styrofoam. If anyone had been riding in it there would have been no chance of survival. Another example of safety standards or lack thereof.

[Crossy]

Absolute inferno. I wonder if the car is lined with styrofoam. If anyone had been riding in it there would have been no chance of survival. Another example of safety standards or lack thereof.

A major materials error, seeing that car go up brought back memories of the Summerland disaster on the Isle of Man in 1973. Evidently no lessons learned.

Now, are they just going to take off (or replace) the damaged car and re-open what has been demonstrated as a potential death trap?

[charmonman]

The ghosts of Washington Square taking their revenge?

[monty1412]

I am really hoping that somebody in a senior role either within fire department or even TAT or any other governmental body at least asks two questions

1) why aren't the electrical circuits on breakers such that an electrical fault such as this doesn't eventuate into a inferno and

2) what materials are used in the construction of the pods such that they are able to support significant flame spread such as the videos showed.

This could have been a huge disaster and Dino Park has a duty of care to ensure that this system is built to international safety standards using the correct materials.

Yes Im being idealistic and western but there is a limit to what Thailand and its tourism image should be allowed to be subjected to and the images of a burning gondola just adds fire to the significant "bad fuel" already out in public domain for this week .

Rather than sending two dear old ladies with flowers to the site TAT should show some backbone and demand a full safety investigation.

[SOTIRIOS]

...better think twice....

[little mary sunshine]

OMG. We had wanted to ride this the next time

In BKK....just an inferno, won't go near it now!?

[eggers]

Yes, another great investment, will be spinning on the lucky ferris wheel when it resumes....where it stops no-one knows!!

Imagine patrons will be thronging to get in!!

Chok di

[Tchooptip]

ThaiVisa members tinking too much all the time, tis will be included in the plice of ticket for the giant wheel, so no mo ploblem! Pfffff

[Johpa]

Dinosaur Planet spokesman said on its Facebook later that the fire was kept under control

I have to say that is something you just don't see everyday. But then again, what I saw in the video was a totally out of control fire consuming a structure I would have assumed, quite erroneously, would have little flammable materials. Amazing Thailand!

[tigermoth]

Interesting. There is not one foreigner, expat, who I know who will consider riding on this wheel let alone take their families on it. We all know the lamentable standard of construction here and the shortcuts taken in all construction projects so the contractor can make more money. No surprise, thank god it was out of service at the time. Next time a pile of tangled low strength chinese steel on the ground.

[razer]

A very inauspicious event of a newly opened amusement center.

Maybe there are many bad spirits ...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

what kind of electrical equipment/circuitry is going to be inside a ferris wheel car like that that could cause such a fire, and what kind of materials in such a car could burn like that

In all the ferris wheels I've been on in past years (not in Thailand, thank you...), they're pretty much just metal/steel enclosures with perhaps some hard plastic type material for the seating surface. Can't imagine what's there that would burn like that.

Edited May 1, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[ubonjoe]

A off topic post has been removed.

[12DrinkMore]

Wanna ride?

Hop in and enjoy.

That would be one horrible way to die. Can't even try to jump out.

Will they replace the cheap foam filled inflammable seats and plastic cabin or will they brush it all under the carpet?

Edited May 1, 2016 by 12DrinkMore

[bubba]

Wow, it really does look like there is no emergency release from the inside of the pod. Is that really the case??

[khunPer]

»Initially electrical short circuit is suspected to be a cause of the fire.«

So that could also happen when guests are riding the wheel – pretty scaring – think I gotta skip my Dinosaur Park, Ferris Wheel ride...

[Dagnabbit]

what kind of electrical equipment/circuitry is going to be inside a ferris wheel car like that that could cause such a fire, and what kind of materials in such a car could burn like that

In all the ferris wheels I've been on in past years (not in Thailand, thank you...), they're pretty much just metal/steel enclosures with perhaps some hard plastic type material for the seating surface. Can't imagine what's there that would burn like that.

Other than a lightbulb and possibly speakers, shouldn't be much to go wrong in there.

[northernphil]

The service had been halted as a rain storm was imminent . What might of happened if the rain was not forth coming ?. I would still rather risk this than a VIP bus.

[klauskunkel]

Dinosaur spokesman: "The fire was kept under control. Especially during the time it took for one fire engine with too small a ladder to arrive and leave again and another one with a longer ladder to arrive, set up and finally put the fire out. During all this time we totally controlled the fire"

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I was by there this afternoon, and saw the wheel from a distance. At least at mid-afternoon, it wasn't moving at all, from what I could see.

Meanwhile, I looked at the YouTube video in this thread for the first time today. And to watch it, it looks like some material in the car is melting and then flaming parts of it are dripping/falling down from the car. Wondering what the heck that was, the plastic or acrylic car casing, or something else melting???

Edited May 1, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[bangon04]

"The fire could be seen from distance as the giant wheel is high and has no high rise building obstructed its view."

The owners of the Holiday Inn will be a bit confused to read this.

[scorecard]

Interesting. There is not one foreigner, expat, who I know who will consider riding on this wheel let alone take their families on it. We all know the lamentable standard of construction here and the shortcuts taken in all construction projects so the contractor can make more money. No surprise, thank god it was out of service at the time. Next time a pile of tangled low strength chinese steel on the ground.

Surely the whole electric supply and breaker set-up, the overall wiring, the wiring in each pod and breaker for each pod should be such that this just couldn't happen.

The video shows quite some fire, so there must have been quite some amount of easily combustible material in the pod and close to the sparking.

Terryifing at least.

Not for my family.

[apalink_thailand]

Errr... should this not be made from fire retardant materials?

Made in China?

[mgjackson69]

Could they not run the wheel around to where the car that was on fire was at/near the ground?

Or would that be too simple?

[berybert]

This has been reported in the British press today. Not been a good week for Thailand one way or another.