PHOTOS: The looping and twisting cobalt blue rails of the Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast loomed above the trees. The iconic siren of the ride occasionally blared through the warm September air as maintenance worked on the ride in the closed park. Below the steel supports, firefighters donned in orange and neon yellow wet suits, whitewater helmets and red personal flotation devices hung onto rescue boards through the class-four rapids of the Thunder River ride at Six Flags.
“It’s like riding a bull,” said MU Fire and Rescue Training Institute instructor Roger Meyer.
For the past 28 years — beginning in the wake of the Great Flood of 1993 —Six Flags’ Thunder River has been a training site for Missouri firefighters to test their confidence with floating through swift currents, trust the havens of swirling eddies and practice diving like a Labrador, the proper technique of leaping toward a victim.