Pumpkin bounce pad shot 40 feet into the air — taking 2-year-old with it, officer says

A “giant shaped pumpkin jump pad” turned scary when a strong gust of wind blew through a Nebraska pumpkin patch while young children were bouncing around on Wednesday.

A 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl were hospitalized after the bounce pad broke loose and blew away at JK’s Pumpkin Patch, KETV reported. That’s just north of Lincoln.

The parents of the two kids — they are siblings — had just gotten off the bounce pillow when a 59-mph wind gust tore the giant jack-o-lantern inflatable from the ground, Raymond Fire Safety Officer Nick Monnier told the Lincoln Journal-Star.

“(The wind) came up from out of nowhere,” Amanda Kadavy told the Kearney Hub. She and her husband, Josh, own the pumpkin patch.

The unenclosed jump pad then flew 30 to 40 feet into the air, Monnier told the Journal-Star.

The girl was thrown about 30 feet into the air, Monnier told the newspaper, and her brother was trapped as the bounce pad wrapped around him “like a taco shell.”

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said the bounce pad landed about 40 yards away, according to KOLN.

The 2-year-old boy is still in critical condition as of Thursday morning, KETV reported, but his sister was released from the hospital with a broken arm.

“The event was getting over and people were already leaving when it happened,” Kadavy told the Hub. “We’re asking for prayers for the (injured) children and the support of the community.”

The jack-o-lantern jumping pad was new to the family-owned pumpkin patch this year, according to its Facebook page.

An enclosed bounce house at the pumpkin patch was also blown about 100 yards during the same wind gust, but nobody was injured, the Journal-Star reported.

Earlier this year, in California, strong winds blew a bounce house onto the highway — while a child was inside. The 9-year-old received minor injuries.