Sparks fly on The Wheel in Orlando when it loses power, three hours pass evacuating guests

I rode in one of the stationary seats at Deno's because I wanted to enjoy the view. At DCA, I talked my wife and kid into one of the coaster cars. I was laughing hysterically and they were terrified. Two days later, we rode what I assume was an Eli wheel by the Balboa Island ferry that ran at what felt like an out of control speed. My kid loved it and I was definitely unnerved.

I made it to Coney Island this summer. Deno's was supposed to open at noon, but by the time we left around 5 so my wife could make it to Hamilton, they still hadn't opened. I was on the DCA version years ago, but I was disappointed that we couldn't check out the Wonder Wheel. Looks fun.

In case you haven't seen it, there's video footage of rescue workers climbing all over the wheel, and ... yikes.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6318153093112

It's inconceivable to me that they didn't build in some way of manually rotating the wheel in the event of a power outage. I get that you would want the motor to hold the thing in place if power fails, and that you'd have to have some way of damping and controlling the movement if you disengaged the motor. But this is a totally easy scenario to imagine, and the idea that you would have to put the workers at risk in that way - let alone the public - just seems short-sighted, or cheap, or both.

Also, no chance you will catch me on one of those things anytime soon.

That is very what-the-hell. I have to wonder why they would consider it necessary to scale the wheel. If anything was hot, they had a drone with a heat camera for that, obvs.

At that angle at least, we can see there's an electrical bus around the exterior, with a junction box at each cabin sweep. I assume that's what made the light show.

"Just another day at the office." - Me (almost every day)