Free Republic

A raging inferno erupted at a new water park in Sweden on Monday, with flames decimating a number of under-construction outdoor waterslides and related facilities, authorities said. The massive blaze ripped through several yet-to-be-opened waterslides, including one with a drop of 43 feet, at the Oceana waterpark in Goteberg — sending plumes of black smoke over Sweden’s second-largest city. Harrowing footage shot by witnesses showed the slides, which had been scheduled to open in the coming months, engulfed by flames as several firefighting vehicles descended on the area. At least three explosions sent debris from nearby buildings scattering over the...

CRYSTAL BEACH, Texas (KTRK) -- A Port Bolivar teen is fighting for his life after he was sucked inside a drain at a water park in Crystal Beach. Tragedy struck inside the Fun Town Water Park Saturday. It was at the Crystal Beach location where the sheriff's office says a teen got sucked inside a drain. "From my understanding, it might have been on a dare," Galveston County Sheriff Henry Troschessett explained. "He's a large, 14-year-old, my size, 5'11", and he picked it up, and when he did that, he slipped into the intake." An employee shut the pipes off,...

Officials said the victim, from Guilford County, died after developing primary amebic meningoencephalitis, an illness caused by an amoeba that is naturally present in warm freshwater during the summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that the individual’s illness was caused by Naegleria fowleri, which is an amoeba (one-celled living organism) commonly found in warm freshwater. The amoeba does not cause illness if swallowed but can be fatal if forced up the nose. Infections usually occur when it is hot for prolonged periods of time, which results in higher water temperatures and lower water levels.

One must guard against being seduced by the ghosts of Action Park, the gone-but-definitely-not-forgotten adventure oasis in Vernon, N.J., that offered thrills, chills and broken bones in equal measure. Those ghosts, many of them in casts or bandages, will gather you in and tell tales (mostly true) about the bloody noses and the chipped teeth you got on the enclosed water slide called the Cannonball Loop. They'll try to explain the rush of adrenaline you felt when you flew off the Alpine Slide. They'll chuckle as they relate how many moons were flashed on the Tarzan Swing, how many bathing...

Walt Disney World's first water park, Disney River Country, closed 25 years after debuting in 1976. It has remained shut for more than 15 years. The park's pool was filled in with concrete last year. Seph Lawless, a Cleveland-based photographer whose work includes abandoned spaces like the inside of the vacant Chicago-area Lincoln Mall, took photos of the empty Disney River Country for a series available in his forthcoming book, "Autopsy of America: The Death of a Nation." You can check out more of Lawless' work on his website, YouTube channel and Instagram. CORRECTION (May 24, 2017, 10 a.m.): Disney...

Now, no one gets the discount. A water park in the heart of the Bible Belt is ending the $5-per-person discount it had been offering on its entrance fee to church groups after the head of a secular charity that caters to inner-city youths requested the same deal for its kids. The Willow Springs Water Park in Little Rock, Ark., had been knocking a few dollars off the price of admission for people who came to the park with their church group. The entrance fee was lowered 50 percent to $5 for children who came in that context. However, when...

Now, no one gets the discount. A water park in the heart of the Bible Belt is ending the $5-per-person discount it had been offering on its entrance fee to church groups after the head of a secular charity that caters to inner-city youths requested the same deal for its kids. The Willow Springs Water Park in Little Rock, Ark., had been knocking a few dollars off the price of admission for people who came to the park with their church group. The entrance fee was lowered 50 percent to $5 for children who came in that context. However, when...

Influenced by Arab and leftist propaganda, the world sees Gaza as a ghetto under siege by the cruel Israeli army, but photos from Gaza continually prove the opposite. This set of photos posted on the Hebrew news site Rotter.net shows the opening of a water park at Khan Younis. Less than a year ago, a bustling modern mall opened in Gaza City. Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu al-Houl wrote last year following a tour of Gaza that "A sense of absolute prosperity prevails, as manifested by the grand resorts along and near Gaza's coast. Further, the site of the merchandise and...

Nearly 1,800 people from 20 New York counties have reported symptoms of a gastrointestinal illness related to a water attraction at Seneca Lake State Park in upstate New York, according to the New York State Department of Health and New York State Parks Department. The attraction has been closed down for the rest of the summer. Thirteen cases have been confirmed by state and private labs as cryptosporidiosis, a diarrheal disease caused by the parasite Cryptosporidium. Its tough outer shell allows the parasite to resist disinfectants such as chlorine. While the most common symptom is diarrhea, other symptoms include dehydration,...

ALBANY, N.Y. Gastrointestinal illness possibly stemming from a state-run water playground has sickened more than 700 people, mostly children and teenagers, the state Health Department said Thursday. "The numbers are growing significantly," said department spokesman Rob Kenny. Seneca Lake Park's Sprayground, which has water jets shooting up from a hardtop surface, was closed after tests showed the tank system that feeds the water jets was contaminated with a common waterborne disease called cryptosporidiosis. The disease is highly contagious and can cause diarrhea, nausea and fever that can last for weeks. It usually goes away without treatment in healthy individuals, according...

A sneak peek inside the Transvaal water park in southwest Moscow shows the front of the 22,000-sq.-meter complex. The park opened in June, 2002. (TRJ) MOSCOW - Investigation continues into Saturday’s pool tragedy, when the giant glass roof of the Transvaal water park in south-west Moscow collapsed, killing 25 people. It was established on Monday that the roof of the Transvaal water caved in following the collapse of a column supporting the roof. The column could have broken because of the deformation of the foundations or a point explosion, the Kommersant newspaper reports. Moments before the blast an external...

MOSCOW (AP) - Rescue workers with search dogs picked through the rubble of an indoor water park Sunday, trying to find survivors of a roof collapse that killed at least 26 people and injured more than 100. Prosecutors suspect the collapse was caused by faulty construction or maintenance, and opened a criminal investigation. The concrete-and-steel roof collapsed Saturday evening at Transvaal Park on Moscow's southwestern outskirts - one of many leisure and entertainment facilities built in recent years to attract affluent people from the Russian capital and its suburbs. Rescue workers carried bloodied, moaning people in bathing suits to ambulances...

The vast glass roof covering a Moscow water park collapsed today, killing at least two people and injuring about 60, the Interior Ministry said. Officials said the collapse was apparently due to snow that had accumulated during several days of heavy snowfall this week. Initial reports said witnesses reported an explosion, although that could have been the sound of beams and glass snapping. “There was a loud noise,” an unidentified witness told Russia’s Channel One television. “Everybody started to run. I started to run. All of the roof over the zone of water collapsed.” The collapse happened about 7.30pm local...