City of Upland, CA

Author: Lori Consalvo

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In an attempt to educate residents on pool safety in the remaining months of summer, members of the fire department spent hours last week walking through neighborhoods and distributing fliers for the "Children Drown Without a Sound" campaign.

"A child can drown in any amount of water and people take that for granted," said Upland Fire Chief Michael Antonucci. "We are just trying to get an awareness out."

The campaign originated after Upland experienced four drownings in a three-week period in July.

But firefighters said there is a need for this type of education everywhere.

"It is not just in Upland, it is a regional problem," Antonucci said. "There have been 14 drownings in San Bernardino County (in the past year)."

The fire department had 10,000 fliers printed to remind parents, guardians and baby sitters of pool safety facts. Some were also distributed to local pool supply stores which agreed to hand the door hangers out to customers.

"The goal is to tell every single family in Upland," Antonucci said. "We want to tie this to people in Southern California because people keep swimming into August and September."

According to the fliers, a pool or spa is 14 times more likely than a vehicle to cause the death of a child under 5 years old.

"When children that young fall into water, they don't splash or cry out for help," Antonucci said.

Because it can happen so fast, firefighters stress that children must be supervised at all times when they are outside.

"These children shouldn't be drowning,"

Antonucci said. "We wanted to keep up with this so we can prevent it from happening again."

Other facts included on the flier point out that children can drown in the time it takes to answer the phone and that most who drown or nearly drown were last seen in the house or away from the pool or spa.

Upland residents are encouraged to call their local fire department for more information on how to prevent child drownings.

Fire Capt. John Fowler was one of the firefighters who went into neighborhoods with the engine companies to distribute fliers.

"I have little kids at home, so this really affects me," he said.

Firefighters are trained to handle drowning situations by pulling the person out of the water and performing CPR, Fowler said. But he would like to see the proper precautions taken to prevent drownings in general.

"We are hoping someone will look at the fliers and take the information into consideration," he said.

Source: Daily Bulletin