A fire last night destroyed part of a flume ride at a new theme park under construction in Iowa.
The fire at Lost Island theme park near Waterloo consumed the queue building for the Yuta Falls family flume ride. Firefighters knocked down the blaze within a couple of hours, and there were no reported injuries. However, the damage to the attraction was substantial.
"This is a difficult setback to our project, but we still plan on pushing forward and opening for the season," Lost Island owners the Bertch family said in a statement to the press. "Yuta Falls is a family flume ride and an important part of the park. The control system and loading station components to the ride were destroyed and will require replacement.
"Our crew will begin immediately inspecting and cleaning the site. We're working to secure and expedite both the building materials and the ride components from the European manufacturer. We want to thank all the first responders who arrived, difficult as it was to get to the fire."
We introduced Lost Island to you after the park's press conference at the IAAPA Expo in Orlando last fall. A Sally interactive dark ride, Volkanu - Quest for the Golden Idol, is slated to anchor the 75-acre park, which will feature five themed "realms."
The Lost Island theme park - an addition to the Bertchs' existing water park attraction - was scheduled to open this summer.
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A water ride caught on fire? Talk about irony.
Between this and Disneyland's Small World, it's been a rough patch for water ride control systems.
Seems like a great opportunity to rename this log flume ride. Perhaps something like "Smokejumper"...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokejumper
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This seems like a cool park and a fun day out in Iowa when it opens of course. Thankfully no one got hurt. This park will brush this off and move on.