Lightning strike turns 100-foot dinosaur into raging fireball, stunning onlookers

A massive animatronic dinosaur caught fire at a Kansas theme park after being struck by lightning over the weekend.

Fire crews in Derby, Kansas, responded around 8:30 p.m. Saturday to reports of a lightning strike and a dinosaur on fire at the park, named Field Station: Dinosaurs, according to a Facebook post from the Derby Fire Department.

When crews arrived, they found flames coming from a Sauroposeidon replica, a 100-foot-long animatronic that weighs nearly 60 tons and is one of the park's largest attractions.

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Guy Gazelle, executive producer at Field Station: Dinosaurs, told Fox News Digital in an interview that witnesses nearby saw the lightning strike the structure.

"People on the ground actually saw the lightning bolt," Gazelle said.

Crews from nearby agencies assisted in putting out the fire, which was ultimately extinguished without further damage to the park.

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The park was closed at the time and no injuries were reported, Gazelle added.

In the Facebook post, the fire department joked about the unusual call, saying, "This is the first dinosaur fire Derby has experienced in 65 million years."

The destroyed animatronic cannot be salvaged. It was reduced to its steel frame after the fire burned away its outer layers and internal mechanisms.

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"All of the motors and the mechanisms got burned, and 100% of the skin was burned off the dinosaur," Gazelle said.

He added that the structure had been damaged in a recent windstorm and had just been repaired.

"We just fixed it, and we were waiting to paint it, and then it got struck by lightning," he said.

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Despite the damage, the park reopened the following day. It still has dozens of other dinosaurs on display, it said.

For now, the park plans to turn the remains into an educational display, allowing visitors to see how the animatronic was built.

"We'll have a frame there that people can look at, which is something most people never get to see," Gazelle said.

Field Station: Dinosaurs is a 10-acre outdoor attraction featuring more than 40 life-sized animatronic dinosaurs, along with walking trails, live shows and interactive exhibits.

Gazelle said the park was fortunate the fire did not spread.

"The dinosaurs are not particularly close to each other, so it didn't spread," he said. "We were very lucky."