Small Explosion in Disneyland’s Toontown Causes Evacuation, but no Injuries

Update 5/29: Anaheim Police have arrested a Disneyland outdoor vending cast member for yesterday’s blast. Something I wondered about below. Police say 22-year old subjects claims this was an isolated incident with ‘unanticipated impact’. You could say that again

The Anaheim Police Department has confirmed that a small explosion occurred in Disneyland’s Toontown area today. A call went out to the police reporting a blast around 5:30PM Disneyland time. The device was a simple mix of dry ice in a plastic bottle left inside a trash can. The area was evacuated as a precaution, but no injuries have been reported. Thank goodness.

It probably wouldn’t be too hard to smuggle in dry ice, but you wouldn’t need to as most (all?) of the outdoor vendors who serve frozen ice cream treats use dry ice to keep their products cool. Plastic water bottles are also plentiful at Disneyland. So this sounds like a ‘prank’ of opportunity by someone who just wasn’t thinking through the consequences of their actions. Making an explosive device at the most surveillanced place on earth? Probably not a very smart move.

To be clear, using dry ice to cause an explosion is illegal in California. Depending on how its created and where’s its placed, injuries could include severe cuts, concussions, and ear drum damage. Since there is no way to know when this device would explode once assembled, setting it in a place like Toontown where a kid could walk by at any moment is the lowest of the low. Something worthy of Judge Doom himself. I hope they catch this creep.

(Of course, there’s also the possibility that it was a cast member improperly disposing of dry-ice in a trash can. Unlikely, but still something to keep in mind.)

Update: Toontown was able to reopen later that night. Police have stated they feel this is connected to a series of similar devices around Anaheim.