The Reds "continue to assess and investigate the fire that broke out Friday night in one of the PNC Power Stacks at Great American Ball Park, and the team hopes the feature is operational again by the next homestand" beginning May 25 against the Rockies, according to Tom Groeschen of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. The fire "began in the sixth inning" of the Giants-Reds game, but play "continued while the fire burned, with the Cincinnati fire department extinguishing the blaze after several minutes." Reds VP/Ballpark Operations Tim O'Connell said, "It will probably be a couple of days before we get our investigation done, and we've taken the smokestacks offline for now. We will still have our fireworks if we win, because they are shot offsite on the river banks." He said that the "only things that could have caught fire, did." Groeschen noted that included "one of the white baseball bats atop the smokestack, with a couple of the bats visibly charred black in the light of day Saturday." O'Connell said that fans were "evacuated briefly from the area beneath the stacks in right-center field" mainly because firefighters "did not want spectators sprayed with water from the fire hoses." He added that Reds staffers a week ago Friday participated in a "tabletop exercise at a Hamilton County emergency regional operations center, with an exercise in ballpark evacuation." O'Connell: "It is risky business telling 39,000 people to get out of the building. I'm not saying we would not if circumstances call for it, but last night there was no reason to do that" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 5/17).
SMOKE ON THE WATER: Reds CF Billy Hamilton said of the flaming smokestack, "It was shaking and everything. I was wondering why those people (fans) were there as long as they were. It was shaking and I thought it was going to blow up or something. I wanted no part of that." Groeschen noted the twin smokestacks "usually shoot flames when a Reds pitcher strikes out an opposing batter, and they also pop fireworks when a Red hits a home run." But on Friday the smokestacks "started blazing at the wrong time." Giants 3B Casey McGehee "temporarily stepped out of the box when the first flames appeared, then stepped back in." Fireworks "then popped out, again at the wrong time." Then, "full-fledged flames again burst out of the right smokestack, the right being as viewed from behind home plate" (CINCINNATI.com, 5/16).
