At least 21 children and two adults were injured Saturday when a stairwell and wooden platform collapsed at an indoor parkour in Barrio Logan, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
The accident was reported at 7:40 p.m. at Vault PK on the 1600 block of Main Street near Sigsbee Street where it shared a warehouse with an indoor paintball park and a CrossFit gym.
“What happened was they had pizza party up on the platform in that building,” said Corey Brizendine, who was at the facility with his two children. “And once they got pizza, there were about 30 kids who just ran up those steps. There were probably … 20 adults up there too. All that weight just made the platform fall.”
Some of the patients were above the 10-by-30-foot platform that was 10 feet above ground and some were below it when one end of the platform gave way and people fell onto each other, SDFRD spokesman Jose Ysea told City News Service.
Two women, ages 72 and 46, were among the first to be taken to hospitals. Brizendine was one of the parents at the scene who helped rescue the 72-year-old woman, whom he said suffered the most serious injury, possibly breaking her leg.
Twenty-one children were also taken to hospitals, Ysea said. Injuries were “very minor to moderate. Nothing severe or critical.”
There could be other children injured whose parents took them to hospitals, he said.
“It could have been so much worse,” Ysea said.
The business closed for the night and investigators were working inside to determine the cause of the collapse, he said.
“The platform was real sketchy,” Brizendine said. “Just by looking at it, it’s not going to hold all that weight.”
— City News Service contributed to this report
