Family shaken on Father’s Day as balcony collapses, 7 of 11 injured
Robert Stevens
Managing Editor
6-20-2019
SPRING CITY—For one Spring City family, togetherness on Father’s Day turned out to be a bad thing.
The Burningham family of Spring City is 11 strong, and when seven of them gathered on the old balcony of their Spring City cabin as the sun set on Father’s Day, the sun wasn’t the only thing that went down.
The balcony, weak from age and straining under the weight of the family, crashed down nearly 20 feet to the ground below.
“Basically seven of us took a bit of a 17-foot plunge,” said Adam Burningham, the family patriarch.
Out of the entire bunch, only a few of the Burningham’s escaped unscathed, but all seven that fell went to the emergency room. Only one stayed overnight, said Spring City Police and Fire Chief Clarke Christensen.
Burningham said, “It could have been so much worse.”
Injuries include soft tissue injuries, a fractured back, broken leg, broken foot, broken facial bones and more.
Now the family is recovering from the accident.
The cause of the accident itself was determined to be weakened structural integrity of the balcony, possibly from poor construction or age.
“I keep telling people I didn’t build the balcony,” Burningham joked.
The Burningham family is highly involved in volunteer service for the Spring City Fire Department and EMS. When word got out that the family was having this challenge, it wasn’t long before friends and members of their “fire family” were spreading the word to help out in any way possible.
A donation account was opened at Cache Valley Bank under “Burningham family donation” and a GoFundMe account was opened; it is available at “gf. me/u/ti4u2x.”
A dinner and silent auction is also being held to help the Burningham family pay their medical bills and get back on their feet. The community is encouraged to come and gather at Das Café in Spring City on July 12 at 6 p.m.
Spring City Councilman Cody Harmer is a fellow member of the fire department the Burningham’s serve on.
“Everyone in town knows them and loves them and we’re heartbroken that they are hurt,” Harmer said. “I hope to see our community rally behind them and donate to the fundraisers that are set up to help with medical bills, because I know the Burninghams would be first in line to help anyone else who was in need.”
