Fire at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on Reopening Day & Haunted Mansion Reopens After 2-Day Closure

Following its 16 month closure, some guests had to wait a few extra hours to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on its reopening day, as a small fire on the track caused the ride to close again for several hours on Sunday. Here’s the latest, along with an update on Haunted Mansion, which had been temporarily closed over the entire weekend.

As basic background, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad closed for a lengthy refurbishment project early last January. The ride was down for over a full year for a “crevasse-deep to mountain-top refurbishment” in addition to “new magic” being added to the attraction.

The main impetus for the project, and what took so long, was a complete re-tracking of the roller coaster. While we’d hesitate to call it “new” as a result since the overarching attraction is still largely the same, the replacement of the track is a hugely consequential and costly change that extends the life of the ride. It also necessitated a lot of safety testing and resulted in other modifications, such as the lowering of the height requirement from 40″ to 38″.

Although not as germane to our post, Big Thunder Mountain has an updated opening scene with a transformation of the Rainbow Caverns, tons of bats, and a mother lode of gold finale. Imagineering also refreshed Audio Animatronics in the show scenes, repaired long-broken effects, added Easter eggs, expanded the backstory, and more. The end result is a refreshed version of the icon Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction that has delighted guests for generations.

Apparently, the tiki gods were angered by all of the celebratin’ on reopening day of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, as a small fire was reported at the load station on reopening day, May 3, 2026, at Magic Kingdom. Based on a review of video from the scene, it appears no guests or Cast Members were injured, and the fire was quickly extinguished by a Cast Member.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad closed at around 6 pm last night as a result of the incident and was closed for over 4 hours. On an incredibly positive note, the ride actually ended up reopening towards the end of the evening, at around 10:20 pm.

BTMRR posted a 30 minute wait time upon return, but keep in mind that would’ve been around the end of Happily Ever After, as guests were either exiting the park or staking out spots for the final Disney Starlight Night Parade.

Walt Disney World has not commented on the cause of the fire, but videos (lots of cameras around since it was reopening day!) show flames briefly visible on the track braking system in the load and unload area before a Cast Member extinguished them. Take a look at a couple of different angles:

Viewer sent video of a small fire coming from below the track in the load/unload area of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom. Cause of the fire unknown. pic.twitter.com/Y1MvkH9o5p

— Ashley Carter (@AshleyLCarter1) May 4, 2026

A little mishap this afternoon during Big Thunder Mountain’s first day of operation after the long refurb. #BigThunder #MagicKingdom #WaltDisneyWorld pic.twitter.com/4D2eAPfqhk

— Scott Spillers (@ScottSpillers) May 3, 2026

While it’s never great to have an attraction catch fire (I take that back–looking at you, Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management), it’s not totally shocking with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, especially on reopening day.

Roller coasters use friction that generate heat while braking; enough friction, and you’ve got fire (this lesson brought to you by my time in Boy Scouts). Although unconfirmed, this was likely the cause of the fire.

Without knowing more, my guess would be that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad never saw the amount of cycling and usage, and with full guest loads, during testing as it did on reopening day. Given the nature of the braking system, a small fire on the brakes would not necessarily cause damage to the attraction necessitating another lengthy closure to repair or replace components.

This is further reinforced by Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopening on the same evening after a few hours. The ride would not have been cleared to come back online if there were lasting damage or lingering safety concerns. So that’s reassuring.

Interestingly, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad did not open with the rest of Magic Kingdom at rope drop and remains “temporarily closed” per the My Disney Experience app at the time of publication.

This is also unsurprising for a newly-reopened attraction, or really any roller coaster. It’s unclear whether today’s downtime is connected to yesterday’s fire. We would assume it is not–it would be odd for the attraction to be cleared to reopen, but then closed the next day. Unless overnight testing revealed additional issues.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Slinky Dog Dash, etc. have delayed openings about 20% of the time. This could simply be bad luck and BTMRR hitting its 1-in-5 delayed opening mark (which is probably even higher for newly-refurbished rides). That’s the best case scenario, and hopefully BTMRR is back by the time you read this.

Haunted Mansion Reopens After 2-Day Downtime

In more positive “temporarily closed” attraction news, Haunted Mansion is open and posting a 13 minute wait (probably higher by the time you read this) as of Monday, May 4, 2026 at rope drop.

Haunted Mansion was down almost all-day on Saturday and remained closed throughout Sunday. Based on attraction tracking, it was not open at any point between that nearly two-day stretch over the weekend. This was not a scheduled closure; despite extensive work occurring outside and around Haunted Mansion, no ride refurbishments are on the books.

The downtime was so lengthy/bad that guests in Magic Kingdom using the MDX app yesterday received a pop-up message from Magic Kingdom Vice President Sarah Riles, apologizing for the downtime and asking guests to enjoy other attractions in the meantime. (This is a nice touch that happens often when a ride experiences an extended unplanned closure; we got one recently for Kali River Rapids.)

As is typical, Walt Disney World did not reveal what caused the closure of Haunted Mansion. We assume it was not another fire on the tracks. If it was, perhaps that tiki gods being angry theory is plausible. Expect slightly elevated wait times for Haunted Mansion today due to localized pent-up demand, but there probably aren’t many guests who were in the park over the weekend and on Monday.

Ultimately, a bit of good and bad news with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Haunted Mansion. Long-term, we’re not concerned about either attraction. In the more immediate future, we do wonder whether BTMRR will have the typical ‘growing pains’ of a new or redone attraction. As evidenced by the fire late in the day, no amount of ride testing can fully replicate an operational environment with heavy use and full guest loads.

This should underscore why Walt Disney World has almost certainly throttled Lightning Lane availability for BTMRR. That was an especially smart move in hindsight, and also helps explain why the ride only had a 30 minute wait after coming back online. (Normally, it would be inflated to a much higher degree in order to ‘process’ the backlog of Lightning Lane guests.)

Big Thunder’s closure at rope drop today coupled with Haunted Mansion being down yesterday means we’ll need another day of data before making concrete conclusions about Magic Kingdom morning strategy. In the meantime, see Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Reopens: Changes to Wait Times, Lightning Lanes & Standby Strategy for tentative recommendations.

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Your Thoughts

Thoughts on the small fire on the track at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on reopening day? Was the incident likely caused by braking friction, angered tiki gods, or something else? What about the extended downtime for Haunted Mansion? Excited for the iconic attraction(s) to be back? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!