Children's Safety Zone

PHOENIX – A 7-year-old boy drowned Sunday evening during a 4th of July barbecue at a south Phoenix home.

A spokesperson with the Phoenix Fire Department said the boy was one of 20 children at the pool party near 35th Avenue and Baseline Road. Seventeen adults were also at the home at the time of the incident.

According to officials, an 11-year-old child found the boy after jumping into the pool and noticing someone at the bottom.

It is unclear how long the 7-year-old was under water.

Officials tell ABC15 the boy was transported to Phoenix Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.

Firefighters Remind Parents About Water Safety: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

PHOENIX – On Thursday, we told you about the tragic story of a 4-year-old boy who drowned in the family pool after his mother lost track of him for up to 15 minutes.

On Friday, firefighters were back in the neighborhood hoping to prevent another tragedy.

Some of the crews that tried to save the little boy’s life went to the homes of people who have pools and reminded them how important it is to watch their children around water.

The crew of Phoenix Fire Station 33 left the fire engine behind and hit the streets in the north Phoenix neighborhood where a 4-year-old boy drowned in the family’s swimming pool on Thursday.

“Today’s goal is to get out in the immediate area since everyone has a heightened awareness as to what’s going on and get the information out,” said Capt. Scott McDonald.

Armed with a map showing homes with swimming pools, the firefighters walked up and down the quiet neighborhood, handing out brochures to remind people about water safety tips.

“There’s a lot of things here in the brochure..stuff that you probably wouldn’t even know that could cause some problems, okay,” said a firefighter.

Some neighbors who heard about Thursday’s drowning are clearly frustrated.

“You watch ’em all the time around water, you never walk away from ’em. If you do, it’s your fault, it’s not an accident,” said a resident.

“Frustrating is not even the word that most firemen can use. It’s so much more than that. It’s really hard on the crews that go on these calls,” said McDonald. “We can only keep getting the message out there..we can only try to make pools safer and we can only keep telling parents you’ve gotta watch ’em every second, that’s really all there is to it.”

So far in 2011, nine people have died from drowning in Phoenix and five of the victims were children.

A 4-year old child died after drowning in his apartment complex pool on Sunday evening.

Family members, neighbors, and friends spend at least 45 minutes searching for little Darshan Kharel, but could not find him.

Tucson Police were called out, and found the boy at the bottom of the pool. Police performed CPR until medics arrived.

Family members told KOLD News 13, the boy was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police said the pool was closed, and located behind a locked gate.

Family members said they had checked in the pool area, and that the gate was unlocked, but locked by a caretaker later, after they found nothing there.

Family members say the pool waters were dank and murky, and they did not see the boy at the bottom of the pool.

Emotions were charged in the parking lot, as police investigated this drowning. Some neighbors were shouting at the family, saying they had been careless.

Howard Haines said he was very sad and angry.

“I have asked them several times to keep this little boy inside. He is mentally challenged. I’ve told them to keep him over there. That kid is going to be hit by a car. I’ve brought him from the middle of the road already twice,” said Haines.

Neighbor Becca Lewis said she was heartbroken.

“I saw an officer with a baby in his hands, and he was running him into an ambulance,” said Haines.

Family members tell us little Darshan Kharel was a special needs child, who had just had open heart surgery.

KOLD News 13 spoke to the child’s parents, who said they had just migrated to the U.S. from Nepal.

They described Kharel as a very active child, who loved to play outside. His father was the only one who could understand what the boy was saying.

Cousin Hari Manilal told KOLD News 13, the family was devastated.

Neighbors were saddened to hear the news as well.

“I started to cry. It’s just an innocent child. Just a baby,” said Lewis.

Tucson police are still investigating the death.

Tucson Firefighters have a reminder for all parents. Drowning is the leading cause of death in Arizona, for children under the age of 4.

Remember the ABC’s of water safety: Adult supervision, barriers, and classes. It is 100% preventable.

This is the thirteenth water-related incident involving a child in Pima County so far this year.

There have been 9 near drowning incidents and 3 actual drowning incidents in Pima County, in addition to this incident.

With children getting set to return to school, summer is nearing its end.

However, the summer heat-safety awareness season is still in full force, and so far this year, the local results have been mixed.

There have been no vehicular-hyperthermia deaths in Arizona this year, after three in 2010. But 13 children have died in water-related incidents in Maricopa County, a “troubling” number, said Tiffaney Isaacson, water safety coordinator for Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

There were 20 child drownings in the county last year. That number has been steadily rising since the all-time low of 10 in 2006, Isaacson said.

“I don’t think we can deny that a factor is the change in the economy,” Isaacson said. “If you have less money to pay for swimming lessons, to repair the pool fence, to have good child care, you are not able to do the things needed to keep children safe. There are things you can do to protect the children that don’t cost anything, such as making sure someone – someone who can swim – is always designated to watch kids in the pool.”

August, she said, typically is the highest-risk month for child drownings, due to the monsoon humidity and parents preoccupied with the imminent start of school.

“Children really want to be in the pool,” Isaacson said. “If you have children in school, August is hectic. You feel off-kilter, and that is a distraction. When we look at the year, it’s almost as if we can look at a crystal ball and see that it’s hot, and parents are distracted. That’s a bad combination.”

Five children drowned in Maricopa County in August 2010.

With documented heat-related car deaths in temperatures as low as 65 degrees, vehicular-hyperthermia safety season in Arizona never ends. Nationwide, there have been 21 deaths this year, but Jan Null, a San Francisco State University meteorologist, said that two deaths are awaiting final findings and will likely be ruled hyperthermia-caused.

Still, the pace is behind last year’s figure of 49, which was above the national average of 38 annually since 1998. Considering the heat wave that has embroiled much of the eastern U.S., the death tally could be higher, Null said.

“It has been an extremely hot year in the East, especially in the last 10 days,” Null said on Thursday. “And there have been no deaths in the last 10 days. Is that because people are more aware of the heat, especially in regions that are (typically) not as hot as Arizona? We don’t know. It’s certainly a question we’d like to know more about.”

Null recently attended a roundtable hosted by the National highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington. “All of the big players,” Null said, were there – NHTSA administrator David Strickland, auto-industry representatives and child-safety advocates, focused on finding ways to limit such deaths.

“Hyperthermia is a serious threat that needs to be better addressed immediately,” Strickland said in a statement. “A coordinated, targeted approach on increasing public awareness of this very serious safety danger should help prevent unnecessary tragedies and near-misses moving forward.”

While automakers can develop technology to help keep in-car temperatures lower, Null said, the best prevention still is awareness.

“Leaving children in cars should be a zero-tolerance thing, no matter what time of year,” Null said.

The same is true for child drownings, Isaacson said. Though the total number of deaths in Maricopa County have gone up, the per-capita rate has declined since 2001. That is proof, she said, of the efficacy of ventures like Drowning Impact Awareness Month, which is in August.

“We are making a difference,” Isaacson said. “On the difficult days, when I’ve heard of another drowning, or I have to talk to a devastated parent, I keep a chart in mind that shows the per-capita (drowning) rate. From 2006-present, even though we’re losing too many children, we’re still at the lowest (per-capita) levels on record. That’s because of sophisticated programming.”