A young girl who “froze” on top of a foam climbing frame was rescued by firefighters today in front of a well-known sports star and other worried onlookers.
England Rugby World Cup winner Will Greenwood was one of hundreds of people inside the newly opened Rush UK Trampoline Park, in Cressex Business Park, when the emergency services were called to rescue the child.
The girl was using the Climbing Sticks structure when she “lost her confidence” after the harness became slack as she was almost at the highest point.
The £4,000 equipment has now been closed by management as they begin an investigation.
Founder and chief operating officer, Sam Williams, said: "The girl was fantastic, very brave, and she is absolutely fine.
“We just wanted to do the safest thing without anyone getting hurt and the fire service acted amazingly.
“The girl has already done the element before, confidently, got to the end and jumped off.
“On the second occasion that she went up, she said to the safety monitor, who was holding the rope, that it seemed to be slacker than before, and she then froze onto the post.
“We didn’t want her to jump if it wasn’t certain it was going to catch and we wanted to prevent any possible accident.
“At that point we called the fire brigade to come and get her down safely, which they commended us for.
“They said it was the right course of action, rather than attempting to rescue her ourselves.”
She added: “When the little girl was brought down by the fireman, it did regain tension and zipped back up again, so it wasn’t a failure of the system.
“The system didn’t fail, it had just lost its tension and she therefore lost her confidence, because it was slack.
“You would think we can probably use it, but we’re not going to, because we want to make sure it won’t happen again.”
The equipment, which is used in other trampoline parks, has been closed until the manufacturers are able to examine it and it is deemed safe to use, bosses confirmed.
File picture: Will Greenwood was one of the many people using the trampoline park when the incident happened.
Bucks Fire and Rescue sent one crew from High Wycombe to the centre at about 12.40pm, before using a ladder to help her down.
She had been stood on top of the platform for about ten minutes.
More than 11,000 people have visited the park after it was officially opened in December by Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis.
England Rugby star Will Greenwood – who attended alongside his family - was one of hundreds of people to visit the park yesterday, tweeting afterwards that he really enjoyed the experience.
Lovely time with the kids @RushUK in High Wycombe. Well worth a trip. #foampit #dodgeball #trampoline
— Will Greenwood (@WillGreenwood) January 2, 2016
Mrs Williams said: “The response since we opened has been absolutely phenomenal.
“Seeing kids coming off the courts, having worked out, having had a good time is what we did it for.
“We opened to offer a community facility where people could have fun and get some exercise at the same time.
“So far it has been fantastic, we are really thrilled by the community response to it. But our main priority is to ensure we have a safe facility.”
For more information about the trampoline centre, visit www.rushuk.com
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