Dozens Hurt After B.C. Church Floor Collapses

A woman remains in hospital with serious head injuries after the floor of a B.C. church collapsed, plunging dozens of people several metres into the basement.

The unidentified 42-year-old woman, currently being treated at Vancouver General Hospital, is one of three people seriously hurt in the accident. Another woman was treated for a fractured leg and released Saturday, while a third victim suffered a fractured hand. More than 35 others escaped with minor injuries, including 15-year-old Bethany Bois.

"It kind of felt like a trampoline, like I was just jumping and jumping, and then all of a sudden I felt like it was all in slow motion," she told CTV British Columbia.

"I hit a whole bunch of (speakers) and a whole bunch fell on me, and then a whole bunch of people came after me and some were on top of me."

At least 1,000 people, mostly teenagers, were at Abbotsford Central Heights Church Friday night for a concert. The accident happened during the third song by Christian rock band Starfield, just after 9 p.m.

Eyewitnesses at the concert say a lighting system above the stage fell on a group of concert-goers, who then crashed through the floor. Witness Connor Madden said Starfield frontman Tim Neufeld told the crowd to stop jumping up and down just before the collapse.

"The main singer of the band, I don't know if he saw it happening or something, maybe he saw the thing swinging down and about to fall on the people, but he told them to stop jumping," he said.
Abbotsford police Const. Roger Gosal told CTV.ca on Saturday that slightly more than 30 were treated at the scene. Of those, approximately 22 were taken to area hospitals, including the three victims with serious injuries.

Gosal said access to the church has been restricted.
"There's going to be engineers that will be attending at the church to do an assessment of the structure," he said.

The church was built in the 1980s. According to the church's head pastor, Chris Douglas, the building's main worship hall has a capacity of 1,300 or 1,400 people.

"It was not up to capacity at the time," he said.

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