Lightning strike turns 100-foot dinosaur into raging fireball, stunning onlookers

Fire crews in Derby, Kansas, responded around 8:30 p.m. Saturday to reports of a lightning strike and a dinosaur on fire at the park, named Field Station: Dinosaurs, according to a Facebook post from the Derby Fire Department.

Guy Gazelle, executive producer at Field Station: Dinosaurs, told Fox News Digital in an interview that witnesses nearby saw the lightning strike the structure.

"People on the ground actually saw the lightning bolt," Gazelle said.

The park was closed at the time and no injuries were reported, Gazelle added.

In the Facebook post, the fire department joked about the unusual call, saying, "This is the first dinosaur fire Derby has experienced in 65 million years."

The destroyed animatronic cannot be salvaged. It was reduced to its steel frame after the fire burned away its outer layers and internal mechanisms.

"All of the motors and the mechanisms got burned, and 100% of the skin was burned off the dinosaur," Gazelle said.

"We just fixed it, and we were waiting to paint it, and then it got struck by lightning," he said.

For now, the park plans to turn the remains into an educational display, allowing visitors to see how the animatronic was built.

"We'll have a frame there that people can look at, which is something most people never get to see," Gazelle said.

Gazelle said the park was fortunate the fire did not spread.

"The dinosaurs are not particularly close to each other, so it didn't spread," he said. "We were very lucky."