5 hospitalized after wind gust shoots inflatable game into the air

ZILLAH, Wash. -- Five students are in the hospital tonight after playing an inflatable game on a high school football field in Zillah, near Yakima. A gust of wind shot them into the air.

One of the students was admitted to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition.

Cell phone video shows the students playing a game on the field inside the inflatables, a when a huge gust of wind sends them flying into the air. Witnesses say paramedics performed CPR on one student. The Zillah School District says they are investigating, but students were pretty shaken up.

“We were having a fun day, everybody was having a good time, all the students, and out of nowhere, we seen the bouncy house go up pretty high in the air and it came down and it hit the cement. One girl was unconscious and the other two girls broke their legs,” one of the students tells KVEW.

This isn't the first time we've seen something like this. Inflatables and bouncy houses are notorious for being dangerous when the winds kick up. You may recall an incident happening in South Carolina in April 2017, when a bounce house went airborne, sending five kids to the hospital.

Anytime your kids want to go into a bounce house, you need to make sure it's securely tethered to the ground. One expert says he uses stakes that are almost a yard long to make sure inflatables stay put.

An adult always needs to be watching, just like a lifeguard at a pool. And if the wind is strong enough to make your clothes flap around, experts say that's a sign kids need to get out of the bounce house, just in case.