A 3-year-old girl playing in a bounce house was killed when the inflatable was lifted 12 feet into the air during a sudden, volatile windstorm inside a Canadian park, according to authorities.
Little Ava Ciampini suffered critical injuries on May 31 when the bounce castle blew away during a fair in Ouellette Park in Montreal, CTV News reported.
The toddler later died at the hospital, Quebec’s Coroner’s Office confirmed last week. Montreal police are investigating the tragedy.
“We’re heartbroken … it still doesn’t feel real,” Ava’s distraught father Luca Ciampini told the Gazette on Tuesday.
“We’re waiting for her to come back.”
Ava is described by family and friends as an intelligent little girl who enjoyed making people laugh. She was close to her brother, and would often comfort him when he was upset.
“She loved her little brother, hugging him and making him laugh when he would cry and singing him songs,” Ciampini told the Gazette.
Wind gusts — in addition to hail — ranged between 40 and 50 mph when thunderstorms swept through the Montreal area on the day of the accident, according to Canadian outlet CityNews.
Ciampini was one of eleven people injured in what seemed like a “war zone,” according to Gino Moretto, whose granddaughter knew Ava.
“It was horrible,” he said.
Rosella Peluzzo, who attended the event, told CTV “a lot of wind came towards here, chairs started flying, tables started flying.”
“I see the inflated house, and it went up high, at least 40 feet, I would say,” she explained.
“It was just turning up in the air.”
Authorities believe the bounce house flew approximately 12 feet in the air.
LaSalle Borough Mayor Nancy Blanchet said “our entire community is deeply shaken by this serious accident.”
“Please know that the safety of the public, particularly that of children, remains a priority.”
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada expressed her condolences through social media.
“It is with a heavy heart that we learn of the passing of the three-year-old girl who was seriously injured in the accident involving inflatable games on Sunday,” she wrote on X.
“My thoughts are with her family, her loved ones, and the entire community in mourning today following this tragedy.”
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