Children's Safety Zone

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

More than 1,000 students went to college this week to learn water safety, while getting a day off from school, winning stuffed animals and inking their handprints under a pledge to watch water hazards.

The students came from Chandler, Mesa, Gilbert, Ahwatukee and the Salt-River Reservation to participate in the 12th annual Water Safety Day on Tuesday at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

Among the games and activities was a poignant reminder: 20 pairs of children’s shoes representing children who drowned last year in Maricopa County.

The tiny shoes lined a walkway next to silhouettes of children’s faces, each standing for water-related incidents last year in the Valley. Of the 80 other children who nearly drowned, eight will have a lifelong disability. Some of those children become patients of Phoenix Children’s Hospital, which sponsors the event.

“It’s part of our injury-prevention center,” said Allison Otu, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

Students participated in a six-week class before attending Tuesday’s safety day. Drowning prevention education is aimed at first-graders because studies show they retain the message best, Otu said.

Drowning-prevention education appears to be working. The drowning rate has fallen to the lowest per capita in 20 years.

One child each from Chandler, Gilbert and five adults from Phoenix have died in water-related incidents in the first three months of 2011.

Water Watchers began in 1998 after 3-year-old Weston Letter died in his family’s swimming pool.

The annual water-safety day marks the kickoff to swimming season. Valley temperatures hit the high 90s this week.

At Tuesday’s safety day, emergency workers demonstrated water rescues. Students watched a puppet show, played carnival games and toured firetrucks.

They also recited the ABCs – adult supervision, barriers and classes – of drowning prevention with prodding from their teachers.

“I learned to be safe around water,” said Malachi Solomon, a 7-year-old first-grader at Islands Elementary School in Gilbert.

Ethan Alexander, a first-grader at Chandler Traditional Academy-Freedom campus, said he learned that water safety is “really important.”

Although his parents don’t have a swimming pool, Ethan said he wants a boat.

“I’m going to convince them,” he said.

GLENDALE, AZ – A 2-year-old girl is fighting to survive after she was found floating in a pool outside her West Valley home Tuesday night.

Video from Air15 showed the girl being airlifted to St. Joseph’s Hospital just after 8 p.m.

Glendale Fire Department spokesman Daniel Valenzuela said emergency crews responded to the home near 75th and Missouri avenues after the girl was found unconscious in the pool.

A person walking by the home reportedly stopped to help and administered CPR until crews arrived.

The young girl is currently in extremely critical condition.

Officials told ABC15 crews at the scene there were two adults and four other children in the home when they lost track of the 2-year-old.

It is unclear at this time how long the girl was under the water.

According to officials, there is a fence around the family’s pool, but areas of the fencing were down.

Firefighters were reportedly in the Glendale neighborhood on Saturday doing a “water walk” to educate residents about water safety and to help them qualify for a federal grant for putting up pool fencing.

A 3-year-old boy drowned Wednesday evening after he wandered away from his home and fell into a neighbor’s swimming pool, authorities said.

Golder Ranch firefighters responded to a home in a neighborhood near the 11000 block of North Oracle Road at about 6 p.m. after receiving a report from Oro Valley police about a child found in a backyard pool, said Golder Ranch Fire spokesman John Sullivan.

When firefighters arrived, the boy had already been pulled from the pool, Sullivan said. The boy’s condition was life-threatening and he was was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Oro Valley police were responding to a call for a missing child when they found the boy in the pool, he said.

The boy likely wandered into the neighbor’s yard and fell into the pool, said Oro Valley police spokeswoman Liz Wright.

CHANDLER – An 18-month-old child has been transported to the hospital in critical condition, after being found in the backyard pool.

It happened about 8 p.m. at a home near Val Vista and Hunt Hwy.

Family members tried to do CPR on the baby, and police officers took over when they arrived.

The child was not breathing during transport to Mercy Gilbert Hospital.

UPDATE: On Saturday, the boy was still in critical condition.