The ABCD of Pool Safety

Drownings and near drownings are on the rise in the valley this summer. The accidents happen every year, but so far this year appears to be worse than others. Theres a good chance of not hearing a child who's in the process of drowning. That's why constant, visual contact is the only option.

More than swimming lessons are needed to protect your child from drowning. Water play can turn tragic in a matter of seconds, and you may not hear it happen. "Drowning is known as the silent death," says Scott Allison with Clark County Fire Department. "So there's very little splashing and hardly ever any kind of noise or yelling or whatever." It's a point thats driven home in video of a near drowning. A child slips to the bottom of this pool unnoticed. She doesn't flail or yell, as some might expect. The lifeguards missed it. They tell us there were only two of them watching a pool with more than a hundred swimmers.

Fortunately the girl was rescued quickly thanks to a high tech computer system. It uses cameras that scan the pool for motionless swimmers. The cameras are both inside the pool and above it. The system sets off an alarm. It alerts lifeguards to potential problems. In case they don't see it on their own.

Not available yet in las vegas, but could be soon in commercial pools here. Most child drownings occur in the family's own backyard. Toddlers are most at risk because they usually can't swim and they're adventurous. To protect your family, experts recommend installing a child safety fence. It should be at least four feet high and surround the pool completely, because this kind of tragedy can occur in minutes.

It's something Cierra Sonetti knows all too well. Her son Austin nearly drowned two years ago in his grandfather's pool. It happened during a family party, with several adults. "I couldn't even explain to you what happened because it happened that quick," Sonetti said. "I think he tried walking on the pool cover and my husband had actually pulled the pool cover back and found him," Sonetti explains. "He was just lifeless and just blue and soaking wet."

Austin is now 3. He suffered brain damage and is in a vegetative state. Cierra spends most of her time caring for him. "It's 150 percent preventable and no family needs to go through it," says Sonetti. It's a message echoed by the Clark County Fire Department in a new public service campaign.

Just a few minutes of oxygen deprivation can lead to permanent brain damage or death. "It's been the worst experience of our life, but we still have him," Sonetti said. "And he's here with us. And it is a lot of work to take care of but I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't change it for anything."

The fire department wants to remind you about drowning prevention.
A stands for adult supervision, with eye contact. As we showed you, you might not hear anything. B is for barriers like pool fences and alarms. C is for classes. Swimming classes for your kids and CPR for you. D stands for devices. Things like life jackets and rescue tools. However, you should not depend on a floatation device to keep your child safe!

Drownings Can Be Prevented

Orange County California There has been 18 deaths due to drowning since January 1st 2007. The most recent occurred in a backyard during a party. More than a dozen adults were in the backyard and about ten children in the pool swimming. One little girl in the pool was wearing floats ,and according to people at the party was swimming face down a lot, apparently holding her breath. After a short time the adults told the children to get out of the pool to eat, all got out but the little girl who was swimming face down. Unfortunately she was not swimming face down; she was not swimming at all. The girl was pulled out and Fire Rescue was called, she did not survive the incident. In party situations and any time children are in the pool ALWAYS have a designated watcher or life guard present to oversee the safety of those in the pool...DROWNINGS CAN BE PREVENTED.

Water Safety Tips from California's Consumnes Fire Department

The Fire Department in Cosumnes, California has provided several tips to insure that your children are safe this summer while near water:

• Designate an adult to keep thier eyes on the water and the kids during social gatherings.
• Learn CPR. Every second counts in an emergency.
• Know which friends and neighbors have swimming pools. Make sure your child will be supervised by an adult when visiting their pool.
• Install pool fencing around home swimming pools.
• Don't rely on pool alarms and pool covers as primary pool safety equipment. They should be used along with pool fencing and supervison.
• Children can drown in as little as 1 inch of water. Wading pools, bathtubs, buckets, diaper pails, toilets, spas and hot tubs can be dangerous.
• Avoid playing around pool drains as these can be dangerous with or without a cover. Long hair can become tangled in filtering hardware.
• Borrow a life jacket. Some of the local fire houses have them available to loan in adult and child sizes for free.

Pool Guard Pool Fence Distributors in California:

• Pool Guard of San Diego
• Pool Guard of Orange County
• Pool Guard of the Inland Empire
• Pool Guard of Sacramento
• Pool Guard of Northern California
• Pool Guard of Bakersfield, California
• Pool Guard of the Bay Area
• Pool Guard of Greater Sacramento and Northern California
• Pool Guard if Ventua / Santa Barbara
• Pool Guard of Los Angeles
  

Installing Pool Fencing Can Save Your Child's Life

With summer right around the corner and school ending, it is time to think about pool safety!

Swimming pool drownings are the leading cause of death for children under the age of five years old. So give serious consideration this summer to installing pool fencing for your home swimming pool for your child, grandchild or neighborhood children.

• Pool fencing is intended to prevent a child from having access to a swimming pool unless a responsible adult is present.
• Pool fencing that is at least 4 feet high, with vertical openings less than 4-inches wide and with a self-closing and self-latching pool gate is considered adequate.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the installation of pool fencing be at least 5 feet high. These characteristics distinguish pool fencing from property-line fencing, which merely separates yards with swimming pools from neighboring properties.

Child Drowning Prevention - Real Life Story

At Pool Guard, we are on the business of putting up pool safety fences and the more we stress to our customers how important it is to be safe the less they want to spend.

A couple of weeks ago we got a phone call to do an estimate at a house in Plantation, Florida. We did the estimate and the homeowner told us that an child had drowned and he/she was in coma. We installed their pool fence and a few days later we got another phone call to do an estimate at the same neighborhood. We went there, the homeowners were away at the hospital, we only communicated with them by phone, and then we found out that their son was at the hospital.

We put 2 and 2 together, and sure enough they were the parents of the child that near drown.

We later found out that that they HAD the pool fence but never put up (paid somebody to install). We had them scheduled to install the fence today, my installer gets there this morning and we found out that the child had died.

As a mother my heart is broken, I can not explain the pain and my sympathy to this family enough; but I am also angry because this situation could have been prevented.

Do you want to know what is even worse? We did an estimate for this child’s uncle best friend and we found out that a few years ago the uncle lost a child (also drowned in the pool) and now this one dies. This is the second death in this family due to drowning and even after the child drowned and while in coma, the parents were shopping for the best price on the pool fence installation.

This is crazy.

The Young Family

Pool and Hot Tub Safety - ABC News

Accidental drowning is the leading cause of death for children under age 5 and the second-leading cause of death for children 14 and under. Even children who are good swimmers can drown, and some do each year by what’s known as entrapment, which means getting pulled down by the suction of a pool or hot tub drain.

Swimming Pool & Spa Safety Tips

• Install drain covers. If you have the flat, old-fashioned drains on your pool, buy special anti-entanglement drain covers. These drain covers are especially good at preventing hair from getting caught in the pool and will greatly reduce the risk of someone drowning in your pool from entrapment.
• Install an automatic suction cut-off device on your pool’s pump. When the device feels an increase in pressure, which is what happens when a seal comes over the drain (which happens when a swimmer gets snapped by a drain), it will automatically shut off the pump and release the pressure. Having this device is always a faster way to release pressure than having an adult run over and turn off a pump.
• If you’re building a new pool, install two drains. This will cut the pressure from each drain in half. Often the suction from a lone drain can be 400 to 500 pounds, which is too strong for an entrapped child.
• Practice active supervision. This means that if your child is small, always be within arm’s length of him or her in the water. When you are watching children swim, you should not be doing anything else — no talking on a cell phone or grilling hamburgers or talking to friends.

Safety Fences Help Prevent Swimming Pool Drownings

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION COULD SAVE A LIFE - Perhaps YOUR child’s life!

In preventing the drowning of children and for all swimming pool safety, the most important choice you make is the type of removable mesh safety fencing you choose for your swimming pool area - including the pool safety gate.

Talk with a contractor who is willing to visit your home and evaluate your needs based on the size, shape and location of your swimming pool, how many children you have and how old they are and any other special needs you might need to consider. Families should consider the safety of their pets around a swimming pool as well. Beyond keeping your pet safer from drowning, it can keep them safer if you are doing any special cleaning of your swimming pool or pool decking.

The most important hint we can offer is to be sure the latch on the gate is not able to be reached by small children, the baby safety fence if used, should be at least four feet high around the swimming pool area. There shouldn’t be any places where your child’s leg or even their foot can fit into that would enable them to climb over the fence.

Green Pools for Earth Day

With the recent activity surrounding Earth Day, solar power for swimming pools was a topic found in several articles in the San Francisco bay area newspapers. There were also several articles about “natural” and “green” swimming pools and “ponds”. Global warming, going green, and being eco-friendly are terms that have gone main-stream.

It is wonderful to see the general population of our country embrace the need for change so a decent world exists to pass on to our children and grandchildren. And for the safety of these same children and grandchildren - it’s nice to know that no matter how a pool receives it’s energy and no matter how ‘au naturel’ a pool becomes - Pool Guard products will always be needed! What a wonderful legacy to give our kids - safe, secure, and GREEN!

Swimming Pool Safety Rules

YOUR CHILD’S LIFE IS VALUABLE…GUARD IT CAREFULLY THIS SUMMERTIME

Summertime is fast approaching. School will be out and vacation time begins. Be sure you have developed an Annual Spring Checklist for all the Safety concerns you want to avoid with the coming outdoor pool season.

Swimming Pool Safety Tips:

• Be sure the list of Pool Rules is posted and updated and in an obvious place for all to see.
• Remove and store all pool chemicals, equipment, hoses, and clamps etc in a safe locked storage area for use when you need them.
• Be sure any buckets are not filled with water or chemicals.
• Use protective electrical covers for all outlets, both inside and outside of your home.
• Check the hinges and latches, in particular to the pool or hot tub gate. Be sure they all latch well; it’s pretty easy for little fingers to manipulate a loosely attached latch.
• Be sure all electrical appliances are away from any water sources which may cause an electrical shock.
• Maintain a life ring with rope near the pool or a long pole to use to reach someone who may be in trouble in the water.
• Be sure the seasons life jackets are in good repair and ready to use, especially the ones for the little ones.
• If children are swimming in the pool be sure an adult is present to watch them. Contact your pool company that installed your safety fence and ask them if they do an annual safety check.Then schedule one if they do.

Pool Safety Guidelines

Pool Safety 101

• Pools should have layers of protection to prevent drowning
• Fences and walls should be at least 4 feet high
• Self-latching gates out of reach of children
• Alarms on doors, pool covers, motion-detectors
• Rescue equipment such as a pole, life ring etc.
• A phone by the pool area
• Pool area free from toys, chairs etc.

People Should

• Learn CPR and practice it Learn how to swim and never swim alone
• Learn FIRST RESPONDER skills
• Be aware of possible dangers
• Be responsible for safety features and watching children
• Never leave a child alone around water

Greatest Problems Causing Near Drowning or Drowning are:

• Lack of Adult Supervision
• Lack of Awareness, Training and Education
• No Lifeline in Place
• No trained Personnel Available for Response
• No Fence or Barrier
• Gates Left Open
• Lack of General Water Safety

Experts believe the installation of fences around household swimming pools could save the lives of some but not all of the nearly 600 toddlers who drown in the US every year.

Additional strategies to prevent drowning are also needed.

• An increase in the level of supervision of children by parents, older siblings and baby sitters would probably save the greatest number of young lives.
• Researchers believe adults need to be better educated as to the dangers posed by the family swimming pool.
• Children need to be made aware of the dangers of water as well as the pleasures.
• Adults need to become aware of the safety measures to take to keep their children safe and then take responsibility for the safety of their surroundings.

Water is a great source of enjoyment, however, it can, as well be a potential danger.

• All Caregivers who supervise children should receive training in Emergency Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and First Responder and First Aid Skills.
• Telephones and rescure equipment should be easily accessed from the pool area, providing a lifeline in place by the pool