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Chessington Fire 21/12/13


Marc

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Personally I'm praying Creaky Cafe was the only victim, if Bubbleworks was hit we'd probably have to wait till winter 2014 before it was seen to. I'm not at all surprised the culprit appears to be the grotto, fairylight fires are all-too common at Christmas and the trees go up like candles.

Edit

Well this snippet from the daily mail sounds more hopeful:
"London Fire Brigade Station Manager Craig Carter, who was at the scene, said: 'The fire damaged a large part of a restaurant within the park, and crews worked very hard to bring it under control. "

I'm sure if portions of rides needed to tended to he'd have mentioned that.

Edited by Merry-go-girl
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BBC also cites that a "Plant Room" was also affected by the blaze. The only room of that kind in that area would be Bubbleworks. A positive thought would be that hopefully the major components like the massive pumps are usually completely removed and moved to the warehouse during the winter for maintenance; with any luck that would have happened and the damage would be limited so minor components or mainly cosmetic.

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The Bubbleworks had been running as I went on it twice on the 7th. I wonder when we will get any pictures of the area when the park re-opens and the level of damage. The 25,000 sq foot area they were reporting would say to me this was the Bubbleworks and possibly Vamp/Bubbles shop.

To be honest I would expect Chessington to close the main gates between the Zoo and Transilvania/Market Square to keep people away from it. Which sadly could also mean the loss of Seastorm for the youngsters as well as the Bubbleworks. Chessington will be covered as they are only advertising the Zoo and Sealife centre, so if you get no rides then you still get what they are advertising. The only backlash for guests will be that there will be almost nothing to keep you there longer than 2 hours.

They don't have the option of opening other rides as Tomb Blaster is too far into the Park and next door to last years ride embarrassment. Unless they fence off Transilvania and only have the Buccaneer and Seastorm open. I guess we will find out after Christmas.

I would put money on it that the fire was caused by the heaters and a decoration too close as I had this discussion with somebody when we were in the grotto waiting to see Santa, I said "Maybe they are fire retardant decorations or something" But this should have been picked up in a risk assessment which I am sure the park would do for every attraction the open, permenant or temporary.

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Oh yes, unfortunately that particular area (which is ironically I fire exit I think) looks pretty charred now. You can see the burnt out roof in this picture:

CS53514040Handout-photo-dat-2949337.jpg

I think not long ago they installed some strange bat models and SFX that would activate if you opened the gate. Of course that's gone now, along with more old facades near the top of Transylvania it seems. :(

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