According to a report from the Orlando Sentinel, the Reedy Creek emergency services experienced a huge strain on already understaffed response team during the Disney Skyliner evacuation last night.
According to the report, the Reedy Creek Fire Department got the call at 8:27 p.m. Saturday and ended up evacuating six cars from the line.
The response took up “all of the available manpower or most of the available manpower” at the Reedy Creek fire department and back-up assistance from the sheriff departments at Orange and Osceola counties, O’Reilly said. Twenty-seven Reedy Creek fire personnel reportedly responded to the scene.
“If anything else would have been going on [at Disney] at that moment, it could have been catastrophic,” O’Reilly said, repeating firefighters’ past concerns that they are understaffed as Disney World continues to expand.
The report states that nobody was seriously injured during the event, but “it may have been a different story if that thing broke out down at noon,” O’Reilly said.
To read the original report this summer about understaffing concerns by the Reedy Creek Fire Department, check out the story by the Orlando Sentinel’s Gabrielle Russon here: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-bz-disney-firefighters-reedy-creek-20190517-wuin256jerdohkngcufsdsltnu-story.html
“Could have been catastrophic…” sounds like minimizing what the guests went through. I have a feeling many were pretty scared.
Imagine that happening at 3pm on a 100° day. OMG.
Sounds like they’re not really understaffed. Just not able to attend to a one off incident in a expeditious manner. Maybe train some other staff to respond too.
Sounds like they’re not really understaffed. Just not able to attend to a one off incident in a expeditious manner. Maybe train some other staff to respond too.