“My older daughters witnessed it and said it was just horrible,” the girl’s mother said. “A big gust of wind just blew it right off the ground with the kids in it. It’s just sickening.”

Gifford said the bounce house, a Little Tikes brand toy that is about 10 feet by 10 feet, was recovered by police on the middle school property, near the bus garage.

The bounce house was owned by a resident of the complex, and it had been set up for neighborhood children. Gifford and the mother of the girl said it was fixed to the ground with stakes, but the wind pulled them out.

“The witnesses said it was a sudden burst of wind and it just lifted off the ground,” Gifford said. “It was just a freak accident.”

Seymour said the owner of the toy, who was not a parent of the injured children, has owned it for a few years and set it up numerous times. She said he put it up earlier Monday, and stakes were used to secure it to the ground. She said one of the stakes landed across a parking lot and near the apartment building.

The mother said neither she nor others whose children had been using the toy realized the danger on windy days.

“I don’t think people know that this can happen when it’s windy,” the mother said.