BUENA PARK : Power Loss Curtails Activities at Knott’s

More than half of the rides at Knott’s Berry Farm were shut down for several hours Sunday morning because of a power outage that had forced the early closing of the amusement park the night before.

A Southern California Edison electrical transformer at the southwest edge of the amusement park caught fire about 10:10 p.m. Saturday, causing the outage and leaving thousands of visitors in the dark and some suspended in the middle of rides. The fire, which occurred in a warehouse area not accessible to park patrons, forced the park to close about an hour and a half early.

Power was also knocked out to 1,800 customers outside the park for about 50 minutes. Those affected included the Buena Park Mall and businesses and residences east of Knott’s Berry Farm along La Palma Avenue, said SCE spokesman Brad Martin.

Buena Park and Anaheim firefighters contained the fire in about 25 minutes, Martin said. Fire officials do not know what triggered the transformer blaze.

Some of the rides were operated on an emergency generator long enough for riders to disembark safely, authorities said. Other rides were evacuated by catwalks or by manually operated pulleys, officials said. Patrons were guided out of the park by generator-powered lighting.

Visitors to the park on Saturday were told they would be allowed to return free with their ticket stubs, park spokesman Robert Deuel said.

“The guests exited the park in an orderly manner,” Deuel said. There were no reports of panic or injuries.

Riders of the Sky Jump, which simulates the sensation of a parachute fall, were given an extra thrill because three of the ride’s “baskets” had been stopped mid-ride when the outage occurred, said another park spokesman, Stuart Zanville. It took up to 50 minutes for park employees to manually wind cables and evacuate visitors from the attraction, Zanville said.

On indoor attractions such as the Kingdom of the Dinosaurs, guests had to be walked through by flashlight, Zanville said.

Power was restored to half the park by 10:40 p.m. The new transformer was in place by 8:51 a.m. Sunday, but it took until afternoon to install new cables and other circuitry, Zanville said. In all, 11 of 30 rides were operational when the gates opened Sunday morning, including the trains, stagecoach and Camp Snoopy.

Although almost all rides were operating by 12:15 p.m. Sunday, visitors were offered tickets for $9 off the regular $21 admission for the entire day. As of 1:30 p.m., only Bigfoot Rapids, a water ride, remained closed.