On Sunday, the Titans and Colts got ready for a typical division matchup at Nissan Stadium in Tennessee. Warmups were finished, pregame festivities were wrapping up, and soon kickoff was going to commence. Then something crazy happened.
The flamethrower that teams use for starting lineup introductions burst into flames on the sidelines. This wasn’t a small fire either, as it was strong enough to create huge billowing plumes of smoke and a wild, scary scene before the game.
Teams love using pyro to pump up excitement before kickoff, but the danger of a machine that shoots flames into the air is that there is a very real chance for something to go wrong. This was an honest to god fire in Tennessee, and luckily it didn’t cause any significant injuries to any players or staffers.
Our team is ON FIRE!! 🔥 ⚔️ @Titans #TitanUp pic.twitter.com/cQOXluTcvu
— Holly Turner (@tittleturner) September 15, 2019
A fire just erupted here on the field. The staff at Nissan Stadium handled it swiftly. pic.twitter.com/Rma8D8Q1fJ
— TURRON DAVENPORT (@TDavenport_NFL) September 15, 2019
Correction: that’s the flame thrower thing NFL stadiums love for player introductions.
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) September 15, 2019
Something very different is happening in one of these games pic.twitter.com/yITK078mJO
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) September 15, 2019
Shockingly this did not delay the game in any way. The fire was corralled pretty quickly and any damage that was done to the field was kept to the sideline. It was great work by stadium staff to avoid this incident turning into a disaster. Safety is, of course, the first concern in a situation like this.
If you thought though that this opener might be able to spark something under the Titans you were wrong. The Colts opened the game with a touchdown.
