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You're fired! Animatronic T-rex burns up in hellish scene

The 24-foot dinosaur is really extinct after an accident sizzles him down to a frightening charred skeleton.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper

Some say the world will end in ice, but for an animatronic T. rex at Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience in Canon City, Colorado, it ended in fire.

A crazy shot of our poor T-Rex from this morning. We just want to re-emphasize that this was an isolated incident and we...

Posted by Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience on Thursday, March 22, 2018

The 24-foot-tall (7-meter) dino, which staff reportedly called Chicken, got a little extra-crispy thanks to an electrical malfunction on Thursday morning.

"Our poor T-Rex has made quite a bit of news," the park posted on its Facebook page on Saturday. "We couldn't be more thankful that no one was hurt at all."

Nightly Rundown 3/23

The Nightly Rundown: > Animatronic T-Rex catches on fire > ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ grows More from tonight’s broadcast at http://NBCNightlyNews.com

Posted by NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt on Friday, March 23, 2018

No one was hurt except poor Chicken, who burned down to a terrifying skeleton. In response to a visitor's  Facebook question, the park revealed plans to rebuild him as soon as possible, ideally by the summer.

"Holy smokes!" the park joked on Facebook. "We always knew T-Rex had a temper but, today he blew his top. There was an unfortunate (and rare) electrical issue with our mighty T-Rex and he is no longer. You might even say ... extinct."

Holy smokes! We always knew T-Rex had a temper but, today he blew his top. There was an unfortunate (and rare)...

Posted by Royal Gorge Dinosaur Experience on Thursday, March 22, 2018

But the video and still photos gave us an idea for the next "Jurassic Park" film series: "Jurassic Park Goes to Hell."

If this looks familiar, you may be remembering the 90-foot-long Argentinosaurus, then the biggest animatronic dinosaur in the world, who burned up in New Jersey in 2016 thanks to a spark from a welder's torch. No wonder these things went extinct. Smoking kills.