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Mar 082011
 

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.

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