12 children injured in Cultus Lake B.C. water park electrical incident

Twelve school-age children were injured at a water park in Cultus Lake on Monday morning, according to the RCMP.

“Twelve were located suffering from serious but non-life-threatening injuries,” Cpl. Carmen Kiener with the Upper Fraser Valley RCMP said on Monday.

She later confirmed that all 12 who were injured were youth.

A spokesperson for the Coquitlam School District says 10 of the injured are students from Minnekhada Middle School and that the group was there on a field trip for Grades 6 and 7.

“We have no information on the nature of the injuries or the cause at this time, as this is currently being investigated by RCMP,” the spokesperson said.

An official from Cultus Lake Waterpark said the incident happened in a queuing area at the bottom of a ride known as the Zero – 60 Raceway.

The spokesperson said the root cause of the issue has not yet been determined, but he said there was no work being done when the incident occurred.

“There’s a queuing area at the bottom of that ride with railing and when they made contact with that, that’s where the incident occurred for a brief time,” the spokesperson said. “That’s the anomaly that they seem to be investigating right now.”

B.C. Emergency Health Services confirmed they received a call at 11:17 a.m. about the incident.

“Multiple resources including several ambulances with primary care paramedics, an ambulance and response unit with advanced care paramedics, two air ambulances with critical care paramedics, a link and referral unit, a paramedic supervisor and an area manager responded,” paramedic public information officer Brian Twaites said in a statement.

BCEHS said that 12 patients were treated. Two were transported to hospital by air ambulance and 10 other patients were transported to hospital by ground ambulance.

BC Hydro confirmed it was an electrical issue at the park and that it originated on the “customer’s side” of the electrical service.

Chilliwack RCMP said they were called at 11:20 a.m. to the water park.

Police remain on scene as the investigation unfolds.

Officials from Technical Safety BC, which oversees water parks in the province, confirmed that safety officers have been dispatched to the site to conduct a thorough assessment.

Global News received word on Monday morning that multiple air ambulances were called to Cultus Lake Waterpark, which is closed to the public, but hosts school groups during the week as the end of the school year approaches.

The park will be closed for the next 48 hours while the investigation continues.

 

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