Children's Safety Zone

The man whose body was pulled from Tempe Town Lake Friday, tentatively identified as Willie Jigba, probably died of drowning and not foul play, according to preliminary findings by the Marciopa County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The final cause of death will be determined after toxicology reports are completed, Tempe police said.

The Medical Examiner is awaiting dental records to make a positive identification, said Tempe Police Sgt. Steve Carbajal.

Carbajal said the police are still looking into the cause of the death of Jigba, 24, who had been missing two weeks before his body was found.

“However, there is nothing to suggest the death is a result of foul play,” Carbajal said in a press release.

Authorities had searched the lake for two days before calling off the search for the 6-foot, beloved Jigba in the 40-45 degree water Thursday night.

A member of the dive team decided to return to the lake Friday morning and discovered the body floating on the surface, just outside the original search area on the north side of the lake.

Jigba was not an Arizona State University student, but he lived in Tempe and had friends who attend the university. A friend said the night Jigba disappeared has all the makings of a typical student’s life.

He’d gone to a Tempe party, the party was broken up by Tempe police in the wee hours of the morning, his cell phone died, and he didn’t have money for a cab or a ride home, she said.

Vigils were held for Jigba Thursday night in Tempe and in San Jose, Calif., where he graduated from Leland High School in 2005.

A friend said Jigba had worked as a server at Applebee’s in Mesa but was starting a new job at Kona Grill the day he went missing.

Goodyear fire officials expect a 6-year-old girl to be OK after she nearly drowned at the Southwest Valley Family YMCA Wednesday afternoon.

Firefighters responded to the YMCA near Litchfield and Thomas roads about 12:45 p.m. after lifeguards pulled the girl from the smaller of the two pools, Goodyear fire spokeswoman Tanja Tanner said. She had been underwater for less than a minute.

The girl was conscious and coughing up water when she was pulled from the pool, Tanner said. She was taken to Phoenix Children’s Hospital as a precaution.

It was not clear what happened or if her parents were there, she said.

No other details were immediately available.

A 7-year-old girl drowned Saturday in an above-ground pool at her grandmother’s house in Phoenix.

Sgt. Trent Crump of Phoenix Police Department said an investigative supervisor on scene near Southern Avenue and 40th Street confirmed the girl had died.

The girl was at the residence with at least two adults and an older sibling but it took up to 20 minutes before anyone noticed she was missing, said Jonathan Jacobs, a Phoenix Fire Department spokesman.

It is unclear how long she was in the water, but firefighters were unable to locate a pulse when they arrived just after 6:20 p.m., Jacobs said.

She was taken to a hospital in extremely critical condition but later pronounced dead.

He said there was no fencing around the above-ground pool and one of the backdoors was wide open.

Crump said detectives are currently conducting an investigation of the incident.

Authorities said a 1-year-old girl was rushed to a hospital in life-threatening condition after nearly drowning during a bath Tuesday afternoon.

Tempe officers and firefighters were called to home in Tempe near Fair Lane and Vineyard Road around 3 p.m. for a reported drowning, according to Tempe Fire spokesman Mike Reichling.

Emergency crews chose to skip CPR on scene and immediately transport the unconscious girl to a local trauma unit, police said.

The toddler’s mother apparently placed the girl and her twin sister in the bathtub for an afternoon wash. Reichling said she turned on the faucet with the drain unplugged and left the room for a short time.

During her absence, the drain apparently became clogged and the tub began to fill.

When the mother returned, she found one twin standing in the completely full tub and the other submerged under water at the bottom, Reichling said.

She scooped the toddlers from the water and immediately called for help.

Authorities said the child reestablished a pulse at the hospital but remains in critical condition.

As the days warm up, Southwest Valley fire departments and water-safety groups are reminding parents to keep an eye on their children around water.

Lori Schmidt, president of the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona, said parents need to be vigilant watching their children near pools.

“It really becomes a supervision issue right now,” she said.

Southwest Valley fire departments are partnering with the coalition to promote its annual April Pools campaign and educate residents about how to stay safe around water.

Groups, including the Southwest Valley Family YMCA and Goodyear Fire Department, will visit elementary schools this month to teach students about water safety. The YMCA, in Goodyear, is holding free water-safety classes the week of April 11.

slideshow Swimming at the Southwest Valley Family YMCA in Goodyear

“It’s really a kickoff for summer . . . just to really stress the importance of water safety and the basic pool rules,” said Kristina Campbell, aquatics director at the YMCA.

Many parents get complacent and think a drowning incident won’t happen to them or their child, said Tanja Tanner, community education coordinator for the Goodyear Fire Department.

But parents need to watch their child and put up multiple barriers to the water, including a fence, locked door and net, she said.

“Kids will find a way to get to the water,” Tanner said. “It happens to everybody. . . . Just don’t let your guard down.”

There were six reported near drownings last year in the Southwest Valley, and no drownings, according to local fire departments. So far this year, there has been one near drowning in Buckeye.

Putting children in formal swim lessons at an early age is a good way for both parents and children to learn about water safety, Schmidt said.

“(Parents) start paying more attention to the ability of their child’s swimming,” she said. “They make sure that they have all of those layers of protection in place, and they tend less to believe in the drown-proofing than those who have taught their kid to swim.”

Goodyear, Buckeye and Tolleson offer swim lessons through their parks and recreation departments. The Goodyear YMCA offers year-round swim lessons for children and teenagers.

Campbell said it is vital for children to understand water-safety rules.

“It’s not so much you need to learn how to swim freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. It’s more of the water-safety concept, knowing when it’s safe to be out there and what to do in an emergency,” she said.

Water incidents also happen to adults, and Schmidt said those often are fatal.

One of the six near drownings in the Southwest Valley last year was an adult, fire records show.

“A lot of our adults are swimming alone and we have a lot of adults who are swimming impaired – and that can be alcohol, recreational drugs, or it can be medication,” she said.

Schmidt said many adults don’t believe they could drown so they don’t take necessary safety measures. But people still need to be cautious.

“You need to use your brain. You’re not drown-proof either,” she said. “Make sure that somebody knows where you are and can help you if you’re in the water and get into trouble.”

The drowning rate for young children in Maricopa County has decreased over the last several years, despite an increase in the population, according to an annual report by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Schmidt said the decrease indicates water-safety awareness efforts are working, but there still is more to do.

“Obviously, we’d like to get down to zero because drowning is 100 percent preventable. It’s not something that we have to endure every single year,” she said. “We just need to have people paying attention and taking advantage of the information that’s out there.”

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/swvalley/articles/2011/03/31/20110331southwest-valley-water-safety.html#ixzz1Kgapvjbo