Toronto bouncy castle that calls itself 'world's largest' just collapsed
What goes up must come down — especially for a Toronto bouncy castle that has quite literally fallen flat.
The Royal Duck, the self-proclaimed "world's largest" bouncy castle erected outside Bridlewood Mall in Scarborough, collapsed on July 1 after powerful wind tore the inflatable from its anchors.
The inflatable attraction, which tours across North America every summer, had turned the mall parking lot into a giant playground packed with slides and obstacle courses. But the Canada Day fun was cut short after the collapse brought firefighters and police to the scene.
A passerby posted photos of the aftermath on Instagram.
The Royal Duck, all 22,000 square feet of it, was supposed to bounce around at Bridlewood Mall until July 5. Instead, Mother Nature had other plans.
Despite a blistering hot day with the city under an orange heat warning, damaging wind gusts swept through on July 1. Toronto Police Services reported numerous incidents of falling debris from buildings and tree branches falling on power lines, causing outages in certain neighbourhoods and even impacting The Toronto Zoo, which was forced to close early.
On Thursday morning, The Royal Duck posted an Instagram Story stating that its Scarborough location is now closed and anyone who purchased tickets for the remaining dates will "receive an email." The post did not mention whether ticket holders will be offered refunds.
Minor injuries have been reported, and two people are reportedly in hospital as of Thursday morning. blogTO has reached out to Toronto Fire Services for more information.
