Lounge of Tomorrow - Explosion at EPCOT

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- - Explosion at EPCOT (http://74.208.121.111/LoT/showthread.php?t=2081)

Explosion at EPCOT

Quote:

As reported early this morning at DisneyWorldTrivia.com, the inferno barge, responsible for many of the spectacular effects for the Illuminations fireworks show in the World Showcase lagoon, exploded today at Epcot. The explosion could be heard thoughout the park and nearby Boardwalk resort area.
There have been no reports of any injuries at this time. The barge sits in the middle of the lagoon, far from Guests, but does normally contain two Cast Members inside during the show.

YOWZA! :eek:

Holy cow! I hope no one was hurt!

It was called the Inferno Barge....

Seriously though, I hope there were no injuries.

What they didn't say was if it exploded during the show (those two Cast Members?) or during the day when nobody was out there. I wondered how long it would take something like this to happen. That's a lot of firepower on one barge.

Well, the OP said, "as reported early this morning" and that it "exploded today", so I'm hoping that means it did indeed happen in the morning, possibly before the park opened. That would be best-case scenario for a scary situation.

I went over to the WDW Magic forums and it seems that there is much confusion about what happened. A lot of the people on the thread about this thought that it was nothing more than a burn off they do all the time, only a little louder than ususal. As I kept reading more and more information was coming in and it was something that was not planned nor was it a burn off. One of them caught a picture of the lagoon right after the loud boom and you can see smoke coming off the "Inferno Barge". No one was hurt but the show will be down until they figure out what happened. So I guess as time passes we will find our more about it. Thank God no one was hurt or that more damage wasn't done. The fellow who was there and got the picture said the explosion was very loud and shook the ground. A lot of people came out of restaraunts to see what had happened. The previous night something behind the China Pavillian exploded causing a lot of smoke. They say that the Pyo guys are working on a new effect and that may be what's happening. The shells are exploding before being launched, which is a bad thing. These two events may be related but no one seem to know for sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lost Boy

That's a lot of firepower on one barge.

The Inferno Barge weighs in at 150,000 pounds, and has 37 nozzles that shoot propane flames to the sky. The energy produced is equivalent to 1.7 Million horsepower.

WOW.... Glad no one was hurt....

Well - now I feel stupid...

I of all people should have known this -

What happened was really a non event
After each performance (usually several hours after the park is closed), a "burnoff" is performed of the inferno barge.
In this instance, for whatever circumstance, the burnoff was performed the next day, when people were around to hear/see it, but it wasn't anything to cause harm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

Do you have definite proof of this? Lost Boy's post seems to call the "burnoff" theory into question.