They look dangerous. They scare riders away. They might be more at home in a junkyard than an amusement park. But, by all accounts, the precarious-seeming lumber and cellophane pillars undergirding a popular ride at the CNE are perfectly safe.

That’s according to the provincial body tasked with regulating roller coasters and the president of the company that operates the ride.

“I talked with our inspector on site, and everything is fine,” said Wilson Lee, a spokesperson for the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA).

Everything doesn’t look fine in the underbelly of the Crazy Mouse, a towering, 130,000-kilogram structure that had to be brought to the fairground in six separate trailers. To the untrained eye, it seems this behemoth is propped up by a series of half-constructed Jenga towers covered in Saran Wrap.

The perception isn’t far from reality: in fact, the apparently threadbare support system is composed of wood ties stacked in jaunty, uneven columns and wrapped in sheets of cellophane.

That’s right: cellophane. The incongruous material was stretched around the wooden blocks before the CNE opened and, barring heavy rain, will stay in place for the fair’s two-week duration. The plastic skin does double duty, holding the wooden ties in place and helping to serve notice when they budge, according to TSSA engineers.

The use of the translucent plastic isn’t standard practice, but the stacks of lumber are, the agency says.

British Columbia’s Safety Authority confirmed this. “The use of wooden blocking to support a portable amusement ride is indeed a common practice in the amusement ride industry,” Safety Authority spokesperson Quinn Newcomb wrote in an email.

Until a few years ago, North American Midway Entertainment, the company that runs Crazy Mouse, held its wooden blocks in place by hammering nails through them at a 45 degree angle, a practice known as “toenailing.”

The company has recently found that the cellophane method works better.

Anyway, what’s really keeping the blocks in place is the huge weight of the roller coaster itself.

“The thousands of tonnes of that entire device are what’s holding it there,” said North American Midway President Tony Diaz.

Collectively, the props provide a level base for the towering coaster, which sits atop a sloping patch of asphalt.

That doesn’t mean the wood supports never move. Several times a day, a ride operator checks the stacks to see if they have shifted. Often, they find that the wood has moved, and have to ease pieces of lumber back into place with a cedar shim, said TSSA’s Lee.

Operators — the people who start and stop the rides — aren’t the only ones who monitor the coaster’s integrity. North American Midway, TSSA, and engineers hired by the CNE all do roller coaster inspections over the course of the annual fair.

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The rigorous inspection regime didn’t reassure Schesica Lindsay, standing near a CNE pizza booth Monday. Asked if she would ride the Crazy Mouse after seeing pictures of the wood-and-cellophane supports, she said, “Absolutely not.”

“I did ride it last year, I have to admit. But now that you point it out…”