Astro Orbiter Catches Fire, Tomorrowland Evacuated

Update: Tomorrowland has reopened. Astro Orbiter remains closed after power outage and small fire. Here’s a pic of a Firetruck exiting Tomorrowland after the fire was put out.

Update #2: In a story in the Orlando Sentinel, Disney claims that the fire was nothing more than a melted lamp smoldering in the rain. Sounds like it was in a difficult to reach spot in the rings at the very top of the ride.

On a very rainy day in Central Florida, the Astro Orbiter reportedly caught fire shutting down all of Tomorrowland while emergency vehicles were brought on stage to extinguish the fire. The first reports started hitting twitter at around 9:30 AM.

No reports of injuries so far. The Astro Orbiter sits above the park with the PeopleMover (aka Tomorrowland Transit Authority) loading station directly underneath. Word is the fire was pretty minor and that Tomorrowland was closed mostly because of the difficulty of getting emergency vehicles on stage into that section of the park.

Latest reports from the scene say that it looks like Tomorrowland will re-open later today. They’ve begun testing the Peoplemover again.

More updates as they come in today.