Massive Disneyland parking structure fire burns 9 cars, injures 7 people

Fire breaks out in Mickey & Friends parking structure at the Disneyland Resort today
A fire broke out at Disneyland's Mickey & Friends parking structure that burned more than nine cars Monday afternoon, prompting an evacuation by the Anaheim Fire Department. At least seven people suffered injuries from smoke inhalation from the incident according to sources. 

At least 9 cars burned on the second floor, Daisy level, of the Mickey and Friends
parking structure on President's Day holiday at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim
During the massive blaze, at least seven people, all of whom were Disneyland employees and mostly from security, suffered from smoke inhalation and were treated on the scene, four of whom were later taken to the hospital.

Four cars inside the Disneyland parking structure were reported to be completely destroyed while at least five other cars had sustained major damage, costs totaling more than $180,000 in damage, according to the Anaheim Police Department.

The fire was reported on the second floor, commonly known as the Daisy level, just before 4:40 p.m. at the massive, six-story Mickey and Friends parking structure on the southwest corner of Disneyland Drive and Ball Road in Anaheim, California, which provides about 10,000 parking spots for Disneyland Resort visitors.


Photos and videos on social media showed black smoke billowing out of the second floor (also known as the Daisy level) of the northwest segment of the parking structure close to the center exit ramp, which could be seen with the naked eye by spectators on Ball Road.

The fire took place on the Daisy level or second floor of the
Mickey & Friends parking structure
"At this time we don't know the extent of the damage to all those vehicles, but nine vehicles were impacted by the fire," said spokesman Sgt. Daron Wyatt for the the Anaheim Police Department and Anaheim Fire & Rescue.

By 5:35 p.m., the two-alarm fire was extinguished by the Anaheim Fire Department after the blaze had burned for at least nearly an hour.

"As soon as we saw it we turned around because they told us to leave," said an eyewitness inside the parking structure. "We didn't notice it at first, but as soon as they told us what it was, we could smell it and we left. It was a little scary for the kids."

It was not clear what had started the fire but authorities do not suspect foul play, said Sgt. Daron Wyatt, a spokesman for the Anaheim Police Department and Anaheim Fire & Rescue, but investigators did not comment on what they thought was the cause of the fire.

Sources, however, inside Disneyland security report that they occasionally have to monitor cars inside the parking structure that are accidentally left running by their owners, mostly from guests mistakenly starting their cars by remote key fobs and accidentally leaving them running all day without knowing what they did as they were leaving their cars.

They think that's what happened in this case, and Disney central communications, the command center for Disneyland Security & Emergency Services, would keep radio records of the running car that caught fire well before it actually caught fire.


Disneyland security makes no attempts to track down the owners of parked, unattended cars that are left running in their parking areas or make any other effort, even out of common courtesy, to try to turn off any running unattended cars, which are most definitely a fire and safety hazard, such as it may have been in the case today.

Aerial view of the fire seen from the north, adjacent to Ball Cast Member Lot
They neglect this potential legal liability despite the fact that other people's safety and their property may be jeopardized by such a potential safety and fire hazard, not to mention the suspicion that such a situation would arouse of a potential terrorist threat anywhere else, such as at airports and courthouses, where any car left running and unattended anywhere on property would have to be carefully investigated and definitively dealt as a potential car bomb threat.

Thousands of people left in the lurch outside the Disneyland parking structure
waiting to get back in before Anaheim Fire & Rescue gave the all clear

Also cars left running and unattended in parked areas are often considered easy targets for theft by potential criminals.

So it would seem be to in Disney's best interests to definitively deal with such situations they encounter to resolve any potential threats posed by a running and unattended car.

Apparently, company policies dictates that security only monitors any unattended cars left running in the parking lots from time to time until the cars actually catch fire.

Disneyland security may have been aware of such a running, unattended car left running in the parking structure for hours that day before it may have caught fire.


 
Disney has, however, remained silent about knowing any information about how the fire inside the parking structure started.


Disneyland officials instead only said in a statement to the press that no vehicles are currently being allowed into the structure, and guests were being rerouted to alternative parking areas while they cleaned up the mess from the smoke and fire damage.


Mickey & Friends parking structure opened in 2000 and was at one time considered the largest parking structure in the world until that title was taken away by a parking structure at Disneyland's sister resort in Hong Kong. The parking structure is still, however, considered the largest parking structure in North America.


The Mickey & Friends tram to Downtown Disney was shut down for hours while Anaheim Fire & Rescue continued their investigation. Guests with cars parked inside the parking structure were left waiting hours outside the parking structure before they were allowed back in to leave the resort in their cars to call it a night.
   

Sources: 

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