http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22573871/


Tokyo's Disneyland had two freak accidents. One a 600lb pillar fell off a parade float, almost hitting some children, and a fire broke out in the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House that took an hour to put out.

Maybe shoddy maintenance could cause the float problem, but assuming the Tokyo tree house is like the Orlando one, there is nothing moving or lit to catch fire. You just walk through and look at it. It is like having a fire in a class room. There is stuff to burn but no reason why it should.

but she's right about the tree house. Does anyone know if maybe Tokyo has some animatronic or something in their tree house? If not then there is little reason for it to just burst into flames.This does sound like a clumsy run.

didn't even know they had a disney land. Go figure.

If it has interiour lights, it can burn from electricity. Little reason why it should, but with so many kilometers of cable, occasional fires caused by shortouts are to be expected.

The Tokyo Disneyland treehouse is, as far as I can tell, exactly the same as the one in California. The tree is cement. The leaves are plastic. You can't touch them, but most of the material in the displays of the rooms is probably plastic, as it is exposed to moisture from the elements. There are lots of ropes and nets, though.
Pretty much the only thing that moves is the waterwheel, and of course the water will be electrically pumped to the top of the circuit, I would guess. It has lights, even though they close it at dusk...Certainly no Disneytronics.
I have no knowledge whatsoever, but if I were to hazard a guess...kids.

I will say that Oriental Land, the Japanese company that owns the entire Tokyo Disney Resort (Disneyland, DisneySea, Ikspiari, several major hotels, its own train system, and soon a permanent Cirque du Soleil installation) runs an admirably tight ship - in my experience, they keep things even cleaner and safer overall than in California.
But of course the Japanese clientele and society make that generally easier, to be sure.

I thought there was more wood in it than that, but haven't been to Disney World in a long time, and didn't do the Tree House at Disney Land.

Isn't there some kind of wired sound system running throughout the exhibit?

Well, the stairs and walkways are probably all wood, but all hefty chunks that would take a lot of heat to ignite.

Don't recall any soundtrack, but I could easily be wrong.

The news story says the fire started on the attraction's roof...easy to imagine a bunch of dust and debris collecting up there over the years, then a stray spark from a cigarette or any number of triggers. Again, just speculating off the top of my head.

That's actually a pretty good guess and the only one I can think of that would be an accident. The one in florida I saw in 2006. I don't remember a sound track and saw no lights but it might have some for the night.

It's like Hitman: Blood Money where you make the hits look like accidents.

We need a game (or a real-life job) where you run around making accidents look like hits.

~J

DLN's husband is an insurance investigator.