20 rescued after church carnival ride malfunctions in New Castle County
One person was hospitalized with minor injuries.
MILLTOWN, Delaware (WPVI) -- It was a tense ordeal for 20 people trapped in spinning cages, elevated 60 feet in the air on a malfunctioning carnival ride for more than two hours.
It happened around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday at the St. John of the Beloved Church carnival in Wilmington, Delaware.
"We had standby crews at the carnival and they heard a large bang and kind of ran to the location of the bang and found that one of the amusement park rides had malfunctioned," said Jon Stewart, the public information officer for Mill Creek Fire Company.
One of the occupied cages on the popular, high-intensity ride, the Zipper, reportedly came loose and fell on top of another cage while the ride was in motion.
Mill Creek firefighters quickly worked to stabilize those cages and keep the riders calm, while specialized units responded to perform this high-angle rescue.
"It took about two hours to remove everybody. I give the firefighters on the platforms, on the ladder trucks a lot of credit for carefully moving the kids out of the cages, across a gap, and into the platform of the fire truck that lowered them to the ground," said Stewart.
One local mother tells Action News her daughter was on the ride just before one of its cages came crashing down.
"My daughter loves the Zipper so I think she was on it twice," said Janine Emanuele-Seaton of Wilmington. "That's kind of scary, so they need to understand what happened."
Officials with the Delaware State Fire Marshal say the Zipper was just fully inspected on May 24. A site inspection was done Monday before the carnival opened to the public. Investigators say this appears to be a mechanical malfunction that no one saw coming.
"Knowing it's a ride I used to go on as a child, it's insane. I was in shock really," said Meghan Norman of Wilmington.
The Zipper has now been removed from the carnival to undergo further inspection.
Investigators say they inspected the remaining rides Wednesday, twice, and all of them are safe to ride.
These carnival rides are operated by Lynam Amusements out of Williamstown NJ.
Action News spoke with them about what happened and they couldn't provide a cause just yet.
Investigators say the company has a good reputation, they're cooperating with the investigation and all their permits and inspections were up to date.
