Community Corner
Disneyland Fireworks Still in Limbo After Injury
The Anaheim Fire Department is investigating a Dec. 22 mishap that hurt an employee. No word on whether the show will return by New Year's Eve.
The status of Disneyland’s nightly fireworks show remains up in the air after an employee was injured during pyrotechnic preparations last week.
The park has cancelled seven shows since Dec. 22, a resort official said Thursday. The fireworks did, however, run on Christmas.
Three days earlier, on Dec. 22, a male Disneyland employee sustained "noise-related" injuries when a firework shell exploded while he and other workers were loading the delivery system for that night’s show, according to Anaheim Fire Department Fire Marshal Jeff Lutz.
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Lutz said an Anaheim Fire investigator is looking into the incident and hopes to find what caused the injury and how to keep it from happening again.
“We’re still not really able to nail down what caused it,” Lutz said. “We’re really trying to get them back to the point where they can start shooting those fireworks again.”
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Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown said she did not know when the fireworks would return, or if the park's New Year’s Eve display – when Disneyland holds a massive fireworks showcase – would proceed, but said she is “hopeful for tomorrow and moving forward.”
“We’re working on a salve, if you will, for this technical issue,” Brown said.
Disneyland is offering other attractions as a substitute, including a third World of Color presentation at Disney California Adventure and a third Fantasmic show at Disneyland, Brown told City News Service.
Brown said the injured employee suffered a “noise-related” injury and is doing well, but would not go into specifics.
“We’re not sharing details right now about what happened,” Brown said. “It really is a technical issue.”
Both Lutz and Brown said this was the first time they’d heard of an injury involving the park’s fireworks air launcher, first installed in 2004.
The lack of a fireworks display hasn't hurt business, apparently. Disneyland is usually swamped with customers this time of the year, and this season was no different as park officials had to suspend ticket sales for a time on Tuesday and Wednesday, Brown said.john cran
