Display collapses on kids, families after balloon drop goes wrong at Massachusetts arcade

PEABODY – Several children were hurt when a display collapsed during a New Year’s Eve event for kids in Peabody, Massachusetts Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Peabody Fire Department, balloons were going to be released from netting inside the “In the Game” family fun center and arcade. The company posted a video of the setup on Facebook before it opened to the public Tuesday.

The netting was attached to an eight-foot tall structure made of blocks, but the staff was having trouble releasing the balloons once kids and their families came in. Someone pulled too hard and the display tipped over and fell about 12 feet onto the guests below, the fire department said.

Watch: Cell phone video of collapse obtained by WBZ-TV

A total of ten people were hurt. Six of them were children and four were adults, according to authorities, but all of the injuries were described as “minor” scrapes and cuts. Some of those hurt were taken to Salem Hospital for treatment and others went to Lahey Medical Center in Peabody.

Brothers Keegan and Korbin Oblenes described what happened. Korbin said he was focused on the balloons when the block display came crashing down. “The kid next to me got hurt and got in the ambulance,” said Korbin.

Some kids were still clamoring for balloons, unaware of what had happened. “I saw everybody starting to leave out the exit doors and I was sort of scared for the people and felt sorry for them,” said Keegan.

“It was pure chaos”

Lawren Turco was there with her family at the time. 

“We watched the entire balloon drop had no idea anything happened until we were going to leave promptly following the balloon drop,” she told WBZ-TV in a message. 

She said large pieces of the blocks were everywhere. “Kids were crying, there were tons of people all in the office some with ice packs over their heads,” Turco said. “It was pure chaos. I had no idea of the true events until after the incident.”

In the Game was closed briefly after the incident, but re-opened a short time later. “We’re currently working with the authorities as the situation is being assessed. We can say that it was not a structure collapse,” said the company’s Vice President of Marketing Scott Brown.

Peabody is about a half-hour north of Boston.

An earlier version of this report included information from firefighters identifying a brand name of the blocks that fell. We have deleted that reference from this report.