2 Toddlers Hospitalized After Bouncy House Goes Flying

Two children, ages two and three, have been hospitalized after a bouncy house got picked up by the wind and carried them 60 feet through the air, WCVB reports. The younger of the boys is critically hurt; the other appears to be recovering. The kids entered the inflatable structure before it was fully inflated, says a worker at the New Hampshire farm where the incident took place. The giant toy was then picked up by the wind, says a fire official. "The wind gust was strong enough to take the house right over this fence," he notes.

The farm worker, Gary Bergeron, who owns the bouncy house, says it was in a closed-off area while it was being inflated, WHDH reports; it wasn't due to be used for a week. "It was missing spikes to go into the ground and it only had three tethers on it, and it's supposed to have four," he says, noting that it was supposed to be used for a fundraiser. "I turned it on to dry it out (after a rainy weekend), and then we blocked it off with a couple of hay bales." But the kids managed to get in, and a witness describes the event to CBS: "I saw the bouncy house fly into the air as high as the building behind me, and as soon as it went up, it flipped and came crashing down." (Meanwhile, a Maine haunted house hayride also turned tragic.)