Friday, September 5, 2008

Bouncehouse Collapses- Children Flee in Panic

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You know those big blow up bounce houses that are everywhere now? We went to a big school fundraiser today (grumble, grumble, I already pay taxes, grumble, grumble) and it was mostly a big bouncehouse neighborhood. The bouncehouses were arranged so that only certain age brackets could jump in the same house. So we went to the youngest one and waited in line. About six kids were in there and each group gets five minutes.

All of a sudden, a breaker must have blown and the air blower keeping the house inflated turned off. The house sagged. For just a second I think, most of the watching adults were probably just thinking 'oops' as the volunteers tried to figure out what to do. But the house deflates fast. Very fast. And what was almost amusing at first became something pretty scary. The houses are made of a very heavy polyethylene (I'm guessing) and since it's anchored in place with stakes, you have pretty limited ability to arrange it once it's up.

The kids were screaming now and all the adults in sight had rushed over to prop it up as they could. But we could only hold up so much from outside. The center was just completely collapsed. One volunteer had squirmed inside and making sure all the kids were out. No one got hurt. But everyone was asking "are there any kids still in there?" and no one really knew.

Shouldn't someone be legislating proper bouncehouse safety!?!?

(I'm joking- let's not waste time on ridiculous minor issues at a government level, please. But if you're involved with bouncehouses be aware...)

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