Fire interrupts TNA wrestling PPV; one worker hurt

Monday, August 14, 2006

A small fire broke out in the iMPACT! Zone during the first PPV professional wrestling match (and third overall, including preshow) of TNA Hard Justice 2006 on August 13, causing the evacuation of Stage 21 (the official name for the "iMPACT! Zone") at Universal Orlando Resort for about 30 minutes. Although a Universal worker was taken to the hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation, no fans or wrestlers were hurt.

The source of the fire was a burlap sandbag in the rafters. Conflicting reports stated that either pyrotechnics or a stage light caused the fire. It was put out with fire extinguishers from the rafters, and fans in general did not know what was going on until they saw and heard the fire extinguishers go off above them. Fans were heard at first chanting "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!" like the 1985 song by Rock Master Scott.

As the fire occurred, Johnny Devine and Eric Young were wrestling. The match continued, and Eric Young won the match. After the match, the iMPACT! Zone was evacuated. Due to the delay caused by the evacuation, a match to determine the number one contenders to the NWA World Tag Team Championship was cancelled.

The Orlando Fire Department was called to the scene, and assessed that the building was safe to re-enter. As a safety precuation, TNA decided to not use any more pyros for the rest of the show.

Sources

"Theme-park fire sends worker to hospital" — Orlando Sentenial, August 14, 2006
Larry Csonka. "TNA Hard Justice 2006 Report" — 411mania.com, August 13, 2006

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Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.