Crickle Creek ‘chaos’ as rides deflate due to power outage

Danielle Obrigewitch said it was “chaos” earlier this month at the Crickle Creek amusement park in Saskatoon when a power outage caused inflatables to come down with children in them.

Obrigewitch said she was watching over her daughter and a group of friends at a birthday party this month, and two of the young ones were at the top of an inflatable water slide when the outage occurred.

“All of the bouncy castles, like the huge high ones, they all started deflating,” she said.

Obregewitch said staff responded quickly to help get children off of the inflatable rides.

“But you can’t get everybody out from the top when (it’s) deflating,” she added. “These kids had to come down with the bouncy castle and then crawl out.”

Obrigewitch said she spoke with staff members after the incident who explained there are certain protocols they follow in these situations.

“I do feel like it was dealt with fairly well,” she said. “They kept the kids calm and they helped them out.”

Some of the children were upset, but Obrigewitch said they were unhurt and were feeling alright after just a short time.

“The kids were scared for probably about half an hour after and then they seemed OK,” she said.

Obrigewitch said she understands that these types of situations happen, and that a waiver is signed before using the amusement park. She mentioned her daughter wants to return to the park and they plan to do so in the future.

David Wigelsworth, owner of Crickle Creek, said it was an unfortunate, cascading, series of events when the power went out. He said the amusement park has a backup generator that kicked in, but that failed unexpectedly due to the heat.

“Everything happened so quickly,” he said.

Wigelsworth said the generator had been tested multiple times, but not in the extreme heat conditions the city saw that day.

“Power outages are a terrible thing for me,” he said.

Wigelsworth said he had a conversation with a parent in the midst of the unfolding event, and offered to refund their money.

“I’m sorry for everything that happened,” he said.

Going forward, Wigelsworth said additional tests were made on the generator, and maintenance will continue.

A similar situation happened in 2016 at Crickle Creek with a power outage causing rides to deflate with children on it, confirmed Chris Selinger, the chief inspector of boiler, pressure vessels, elevators and amusement rides for the Technical Safety Authority of Saskatchewan.

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He said the most recent incident was also reported to the safety authority, and inspectors were sent to follow up on the rides’ conditions that week. He noted no injuries were reported in either case.

Seligner said the organization inspects inflatable devices on a yearly basis. The last inspection at Crickle Creek was done in May, and other than a reminder of minor repairs, he said there were no significant issues.