Colossus Roller Coaster Catches Fire And Collapses At Six Flags Magic Mountain
A fire erupted on the famous Colossus roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain today while crews were trying to disassemble the ride.
Police reports say that Los Angeles County firefighters responded to the park in Valencia at about 1:30 p.m. Local TV news stations aired helicopter video showing fire burning at a high point on the giant amusement ride. Pieces of the track and wooden structure could be seen falling away as firefighters struggled to reach the fire with the water stream from their hoses.
Raw Video from KABC News LA
Sheriff’s officials said the fire was sparked by welders working on the ride, which is under reconstruction.
Magic Mountain spokeswoman, Sue Carpenter said in a statement that the fire was at “the top of the lift hill at Colossus.”
As fire crews doused the ride with water, the top of the lift hill collapsed. The fire only lasted about 30 minutes and no injuries were reported. Magic Mountain was closed today , so no guests were in the park.
The Colossus wooden coaster opened on June 29, 1978 and offered it’s farewell run on August 17, 2014. The park is currently dismantling the coaster and plans to replace the ride in 2015 with an all new design combining an iconic wooden structure with state-of-the-art Iron Horse Track. The new coaster will be called Twisted Colossus. The advanced technology, available exclusively at Six Flags, provides ride experiences never before possible on wooden coasters, such as over-banked turns and inversions. Twisted Colossus will feature numerous exciting components including a “Top Gun” element, the western hemisphere’s first “High Five” element, and a Zero G Roll.
Details and photos of the new Twisted Colossus can be found here.
UPDATE:
At approximately 6:47 pm EST Six Flags Made an official statement:
“The fire at the top of the lift hill on Colossus is out. It happened while work was being done to disassemble the ride. The park was closed and there were no injuries. Colossus has been closed since August 17 for renovation. Plans for the spring debut of Twisted Colossus are still on track”.
Such a bummer for Magic Mountain… Lets hope this doesn’t create too much of a problem on the new build!
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