Firefighters rescue children
Published: July 9, 2008
The Patriots in the Park annual carnival turned into a tense situation for several children stranded on a ride.
Sometime between 4 and 6 p.m. on Friday, six children between the ages of 3 and 8 were stranded for about 25 minutes on the Crazy Bus, a children’s ride that goes in circles for several minutes. An electronic problem caused the malfunction, according to Granite City firefighter/paramedic Craig Sykes.
Sykes was one of nine special responders from the fire department who rescued the children by carrying five of the six down a ladder.A child of about 8 was old enough to climb down the ladder by himself, Sykes said.
The children were stranded a little more than 20 feet off the ground in an upright position while they were rescued by firefighters. The rescue took about 15 minutes. No one was injured, Sykes said.
“The youngest one (about 3 or 4) seemed scared. The others seemed fine,” Sykes said.
“This was the first time we had any problems with any of the rides since I’ve been with the Park District,” said Dave Williams, executive director of the Granite City Park and Recreational District. “We’re thankful no one was hurt.”
Williams, who has been the executive director since 2000, said the ride was shut down for the remaining two days of the carnival.
The rides at the Patriots in the Park carnival are owned and operated by Swyear Amusements Company, of New Athens.
Swyear has been providing rides at the carnival for several years, Williams said.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: