State Fair: No Fire Ball ride this year

Inspections await rides at county fair after Ohio tragedy

Authorities stand near the Fire Ball amusement ride after the ride malfunctioned, killing one male rider and injuring several others, at the Ohio State Fair, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Columbus, Ohio. (Barbara J. Perenic/The Columbus Dispatch via AP)
Authorities stand near the Fire Ball amusement ride after the ride malfunctioned, killing one male rider and injuring several others, at the Ohio State Fair, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Columbus, Ohio. (Barbara J. Perenic/The Columbus Dispatch via AP)

The only "Fire Ball" ride scheduled to operate at a Missouri fair has been shut down following Wednesday's deadly accident at the Ohio State Fair.

A man was killed and seven other people injured when a thrill ride broke apart and flung people into the air Wednesday night at the Ohio fair. Video captured by a bystander shows one section of the Fire Ball ride holding four riders come apart as it begins to swing upward and at least two people tumbling in the air.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety and the Division of Fire Safety's Amusement Ride Safety Unit contacted amusement ride operators at the Ozark Empire Fair in Springfield on Thursday morning, and all agreed the Fire Ball ride would not be put into operation pending results of the Ohio investigation and further review by state amusement ride safety inspectors.

DPS officials said they had no record of the Ohio fair ride operator, Amusements of America, operating in Missouri.

Officials at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, scheduled to begin Aug. 10, also announced Thursday no ride like the Fire Ball will operate at this year's fair. Such a ride did operate at last year's fair and had been on operator Wade Shows' list for the carnival at this year's fair, although fair officials said rides were subject to change.

Any ride operator Miller Spectacular Shows plans to use at next week's Jefferson City Jaycees Cole County Fair must be inspected by officials with the state fire marshal's office, which is designated by state law to perform spot inspections of fair rides. Inspectors look for anything that might pinch, scratch or hurt a rider. The rides also must be run in front of the inspectors.

Along with state-conducted inspections, the rides must be checked every day by their operators before they open with proper documentation on maintenance of the rides.

"Although our inspections are unannounced, the operators of most, if not all, of these fairs know we are coming," DPS spokesman Mick O'Connell said. "We do them after they have the rides set up because it doesn't make sense to come until the rides are ready to go."

If inspectors find something like a seat belt needing to be fixed, operators can simply take that car out of service until it's repaired, O'Connell said. But if an inspection finds something major, the operator would have to take the whole ride out of service, and it would have to be cleared before operating again.

These same inspectors are cross-certified, so they stay busy in the fair off season by doing inspections of elevators.

"Each jurisdiction is different and some go above and beyond what is needed. At the state fair, in addition to the state inspectors, the fair hires a full-time inspector that stays throughout the fair and inspects rides every day. There's nothing that prevents a jurisdiction or a fair or carnival operator to have their own inspectors."