Fire destroys bumper cars, gift shop at Wyandot Lake

Ahhhhhh! My poor Wyandot bumper cars!!!! see, this is what happens when I go out of town for the weekend! Im sorry baby!

Another link (registration required) from the Columbus Dispatch.

Yet another link from WBNS-TV.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

This is quite sad for Wyandot Lake. I hope SF will still pull it back together. It's a nice very little park. It's one of those type of parks that even the littlest fire can ruin it. I'm glad to hear no one was hurt. This park puts on a good Halloween festival each year and I hope they can still do it. Time will tell.

For those who are looking for some pics of the area, before the fire, here's a 360' of the main area before the fire where you can see the bumper cars and gift stores and games around it.

360' Wyandot Lake

"The Future of Roller Coasters"

-RollerCoasterGod *** This post was edited by RollerCoasterGod on 9/23/2002. ***

I wonder what Wyandot will do with that location. New bumper cars, something else, or nothing?

I'm glad the fire didn't spread to the rest of the park, especially the Sea Dragon - that isn't far from the bumper cars.

Unfortunately, the Hi-Striker game located next to the bumper cars made it through the fire unscathed ;)

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I started out with nothing and still have most of it left.

The Hi-Striker probably made it, but the Guessing Game probably didn't. At least the Skee-Ball lanes aren't under there anymore :)

I do hope that they rebuild something with the insurance money...for some reason, I doubt it will be bumper cars though.

A side note, the ever-sensational news media made a big point that "it could have been much worse" by spreading to the zoo. In order to do that, the fire would have to have gone through the Sea Dragon, over the water park and wave pool, over the parking lot entrance and part of the lot, then go through a few other zoo buildings before even coming close to the animals. Or maybe it could have burned down another couple of buildings, a carousel, leap a 5-lane highway, then maybe it would have come close to them.

I love the media :)

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My K'Nex Coasters - 2nd Coaster added

Coming to Wyandot Lake in 2003: Sea Dragon's Revenge

Wow....two people who share my dislike of High Striker...possibly the most annoying game of all time...especially since my park decided the sound that came with it wasn't enough and AMPLIFIED it about 5 times.

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Waiting for the CP announcement to be made so that about 1000+ posts will be made complaining about it.

The facility I work at has the Hi-Striker INDOORS. Luckily, I'm in charge of the games so the sound is decently tolerable :)

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My K'Nex Coasters - 2nd Coaster added

Coming to Wyandot Lake in 2003: Sea Dragon's Revenge

If you're gonna have something like a Hi-Striker, at least get a real one istead of that electronic thing.

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I started out with nothing and still have most of it left.

If you don't like that, wait'll you see Hi-Striker Extreme! It plays music and has dot-matrix animation all the way up the tower.

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My K'Nex Coasters - 2nd Coaster added

Coming to Wyandot Lake in 2003: Sea Dragon's Revenge

I find it ironic that the "security people inside the closed park were not injured", yet a PASSERBY is the one who called for help.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

Update:

The good news:
The High Striker was lost in the fire.

The bad news:
The bumper cars themselves were not, as they had been removed to make room for a haunted house attraction.

The bumper car building, the guessing game, the rental center, and half of the gift shop were all destroyed, basically everything around the corner from the coaster to the end of the gift shop.

Maybe this will force Six Flags to do some capital improvements in that park. I do know it will most probably look very different next season!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Really? the High Striker was lost? I drove by the place yesterday and the thing looked fine.

It will be interesting to see what happens for next season.

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I started out with nothing and still have most of it left.

The High Striker is still standing, but its brain was attached to the side of the bumper car building, and I guess the Turbolites on the building side of the tower all melted in the heat.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Wow such terrible news. But I agree that not enough High Strikers meet their maker....I am just thankful that John Allen's baby went untouched. And the bumper cars, which used to be quite fast, haven't done much for me lately. Here's to a speedy recovery.

I agree with jimmybob....a fire at the zoo would be more likely to start from the zillions of xmas lights they are about to put up!
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Brad Sherman
BuzzCon Frequent Flyer, responsible for guests fleeing the queue in horror!
Model coasters and rides

Thanks for the updates, Dave. I haven't had a chance to swing by and see the damage. If they're looking for a new High Striker on the quick, I've got one right here in Columbus that they can have (and they can keep it for all I care) :)

Funny how there are more posts related to the derned High Striker game than everything else...

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My K'Nex Coasters - 2nd Coaster added

Coming to Wyandot Lake in 2003: Sea Dragon's Revenge