Bobby - posted on 04/19/2010 ( 8 moms have responded )
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My name is Linda Cresdee, today 18th April, 2010,I had a party at Freckles Fun Factory, Condon, QLD. The jumping castle at the centre deflated and eventually collapsed on 4 children or though there were other children on the castle who managed to escape the immediate danger. The 4 girls who didn't became wedged between the jumping castle and the wall,with the jumping castle swallowing them in like quicksand in a matter of seconds. The parents of all the children were less than 5 mtres away from the jumping castle, we couldn't hear them screaming because the music on the PA system was so loud and background noise of the other children, we couldn't see them and didn't see the fall and it was only by luck the three girls on the bottom managed to push one of the girls out for her to get help. When we realized they were in trouble we couldn't get to them immediately either,there was only one way to get to them and the opening was hidden by the deflation.When we tried to get to the back of the jumping castle there was an obstruction blocking the path. It then took 4 woman (mothers) to peel back the jumping castle to free the girls one at a time,my daughter who was on the bottom of the pile had 3 other girls on top of her not to mention 40 or 50 kg of deflated jumping castle, by this time the girls were distraught,very frightened, screaming, sweating and having trouble breathing. No attempt was made by the staff at the centre (Freckles Fun Factory) to help us (the parents) or the children, the staff had no idea what to do in an emergency situation, nor did they have any sort of action plan for a situation like that, they made no apology to myself, the other parents or the children involved, nor did they speak to the children or parents to get detailed facts. I then had to ask the acting manage to fill out an incident report twice, before she decided to do it. When I confronted the staff members about whether they had first aide certificates one of them didn't even know what it was. The Safety signage at the centre is unreadable,there was no attempt by staff to enter the play area the whole two hours we were there to check on the kids,even though they had camera monitors in the office and could see the parents scrambling for their children in the jumping castle area, and then while I was filling out the incident report at the counter my three year old son was able to walk straight into the kitchen area and was standing in front of the hot chip vats, there was no gate or door even stopping him from entering the kitchen area. This business is a major danger site, and a fatality in the making, it was only because of their ages that these girls are still alive, if 4 or 5 younger kids were in that same situation we would have lost them all, because they wouldn't been able to scream out,or push one out to get help, and they all would have suffocated to death. My aim is to have Freckles Fun Factory shut down until all investigations regarding the center's safety issues have been rectified.
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