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L.A. Now California: This just in
LOCAL L.A. Now
Nearly two dozen children injured in stairwell collapse at San Diego gym
Dozens of children were injured Saturday night when a stairwell collapsed at an indoor gym in San Diego. (Courtesy of Zachary Smith)
Pauline Repard, Kristina Davis
Nearly two dozen children were injured after a stairwell collapsed Saturday night at an indoor gym in San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood.
The incident occurred about 7:40 p.m. at Vault PK on Main Street near Sigsbee Street, next to a paintball facility, officials said. The gym specializes in parkour, a physically demanding sport that requires athletes to navigate military-style obstacle courses.
Twenty-one children and two adults, ages 72 and 46, were taken to various hospitals with moderate to minor injuries. Three or four of the victims suffered spinal injuries when a 10-by-30-foot wooden platform collapsed on them, said San Diego Fire-Rescue Deputy Chief Steve Wright.
The patients were taken to Rady Children’s Hospital, Scripps Mercy, Sharp and UC San Diego Medical Center, Wright said. There were additional people with minor injuries who left on their own, rather than by ambulance, he said.
Zachary Smith, who was there with his son for a birthday party, said he was standing on the platform, which he described as a viewing area, along with about 30 others, when the staircase below collapsed, causing the platform to topple. He fell onto a young girl but neither were seriously hurt, he said. Smith’s son was also on the platform at the time but suffered only minor scrapes.
“It was a freak accident,” Smith said, adding that it could have been avoided because the structure did not appear to be built to hold such weight.
Smith said the collapse sparked chaos with parents scrambling to find their children amid the debris.
One parent who did not provide his name said the stairwell collapsed after so many children were running up and down to get pizza. Many parents were likely using a Groupon that had been offered for the evening’s open gym, he said. His son was not injured.
Joe Saari said that when he and his wife dropped off their two children for a few hours, there were 100 to 150 kids at the warehouse, which includes trampolines and bouncy houses. The couple were heading back home to Chula Vista when one of their children called and said there had been an accident.
His kids suffered minor scrapes, Saari said.
An hour after the accident, the street around the warehouse was lined with ambulances and firetrucks, some leaving with apparent victims inside. Children huddled nearby in groups, some with parents.
The cause of the stairwell collapse is under investigation.