Tamba Park praised for handling of dino dental work fire

Thursday 20 April 2017

It was a level of excitement which visitors to Tamba Park weren't expecting. The Park is expected to re-open today after a major fire sparked the site's evacuation yesterday afternoon amid concerns that a large blaze, caused by dental work on a robotic rubber dinosaur, would get out of hand.

Fire Service Head of Operations Martin Allix applauded the Tamba team’s swift evacuation of families and children from the adventure park site, and their efficient communication, which helped fire fighters get the blaze under control in just 45 minutes, and minimise the effects of the carcinogenic black smoke.

He told Express: “Without a suggestion of exaggeration, the Tamba Park management did an excellent job. They very calmly evacuated the visitors they had whilst at the same time arranged for site people to meet us. As we arrived, they pointed us absolutely in the right direction and we had every assistance we could need.”

The fire started after a spark from a welder’s tool being used to fix the damaged tooth of a mechanical t-rex head set the beast alight, leading to a “domino effect” that sent the whole building up in flames according to Tamba owner Jonathan Ruff.

Pictured: One of Tamba Park's many robotic dinosaurs, similar to the one from which the fire originated.

20 Fire Fighters and three fire engines tackled the fire, along with a water carrier and a hydraulic ladder allowing access to the roof. 

Martin Allix revealed how the fire spread: “It was like, ‘You ate the spider to catch the fly’. There’s a golfing buggy next to it [the dinosaur]. The buggy then set fire to a big four-wheel drive vehicle, and the four-wheel drive vehicle set fire to two boats – one of which was on a trailer of the vehicle. That then set fire to the whole structure around them.”

This was then complicated by the buildings’ composition, which included former refrigeration areas within the glasshouses made up of water-protected “sandwich panels” containing six inch expanded polystyrene insulation.

Pictured: Firefighters rush to attend the scene. (Photo: Jersey Fire and Rescue)

The combination led to a dense plume of black smoke, which could be viewed as far as St Aubin’s Bay and the Rugby Club in St Peter, and necessitated the use of breathing apparatus by firefighters entering the area.

“It started with rubber and ended with polystyrene, and all that makes very black smoke,” Mr Allix said of the “tricky” fire.

“There’s two reasons that made it difficult: one is the temperature that this stuff burns at is very high, which led to the collapse of a sizeable part of the glass house roof structure, and the second one is, by its very nature, it’s in-between a sandwich of water-protected material so you can’t actually get in to extinguish it.”

Fortunately, the collapse of the roof allowed the smoke to dissipate, which provided the firefighters with a clearer view of the burning items inside.

Pictured: The aftermath at the glasshouses blaze next to the dinosaur-themed amusement park. (Photo: Tamba)

Islanders have since added to Mr Allix’s praise for Tamba Park’s handling of the incident, during which zero injuries were incurred.

One commented on Facebook: “Glad to hear no one was injured and park not affected too much by what happened... Well done to the staff at Tamba for keeping calm and to the firefighters for an awesome job.”

Another added: “Well done to all the staff for evacuating everyone so quickly - the fire got huge so fast.”