Hot air balloon lands in Woodland bowling alley parking lot, another near homes
A pair of hot air balloons touched down in unusual landing spots Friday morning in Woodland, prompting response from firefighters, but the landings were apparently intentional and no one was hurt, authorities said.
Two calls came in for separate air balloons “that looked like they may be in trouble” as they returned to earth, the Woodland Fire Department said in a Facebook post.
One balloon was heading toward a bowling alley on West Main Street, and another was going in the direction of County Road and West El Dorado Drive, on the edge of a residential neighborhood, fire officials said.
Crews responded “immediately” to both locations at about 8:30 a.m. to assist in the event of possible crash landings, but both of the landings “turned out to be intentional, for unknown reasons at this time,” the post said.
Each landed safely and no injuries were reported, authorities said.
“Reports that it was an emergency landing were incorrect,” the Woodland Police Department said in a separate social media post, instead calling the landing “unexpected.”
Woodland fire and police personnel responded to the two scenes, the latter for crowd control. A photo from in front of the bowling alley showed about a dozen civilians gathered in and around the basket of the balloon, a bright yellow one adorned with cartoon roses on its sides.
“Well. ... that’s not something we see every day!” the Fire Department wrote on Facebook.
Last July, a pair of hot air balloons made emergency landings near Interstate 505 outside of Winters. One of those balloons was also bright yellow with rose designs, but it is not clear if the same hot air balloon was involved in both Friday and last year’s incidents.
