You're all buckled in, ready to ride the loop of the Fireball roller coaster. With every turn and every jolt, your stomach churns, and your heart races. You're halfway up the loop when suddenly - you stop. And you're hanging upside down.
A Wisconsin roller coaster went from thrill to nightmare on Sunday as eight people were stuck - for several hours - after an unspecified mechanical failure, the Crandon Fire Department told WFJW.
It is not clear what stalled the ride at the Forest County Festival in northeastern Wisconsin. But because of its height and release mechanism, specialized rescue teams and aid equipment were needed to remove the riders, according to a news release Tuesday from the Crandon Fire Department and a rescue squad.
It took about 45 minutes for a ladder truck with a 100-foot platform to arrive. An off-duty firefighter with ropes-rescue training who happened to be at the scene advised the fire department on possible solutions before firefighters from neighboring cities Antigo, Rhinelander and Pelican arrived to help, the release said.
In video shared on social media, firefighters talk to passengers to keep them calm while others grind metal to help release the riders.
The first rider reached the ground at 3:20 p.m. and the last at 5:01 p.m., the release said, more than three hours after the ride came to a halt.
Nine patients were treated by emergency medical services, and one was sent to Aspirus Rhinelander Hospital for treatment, the news release said.
This came days after a father reported a crack in a steel support beam of a 325-foot-tall roller coaster at the Carowinds amusement park in Charlotte on June 30.
His report shut down the Fury 325, which the park describes as "the tallest, fastest, longest giga coaster in North America," for inspection and repair.
