SANFORD, Fla. — More than 200 Seminole County first responders and code enforcement officials are receiving swimming pool safety training this week with the goal of preventing future drownings.
What You Need To Know
- Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1-4 in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Health and Swim Life
- Swim Life, a full service water safety and swim school, is providing training to first responders, teaching them drowning prevention skills
- A grant to Seminole County Community Health from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission provided the funding for the training
- One firefighter in attendance lost his son in a home drowning accident
The training on water safety techniques is made possible by a nearly $195,000 grant to Seminole County Community Health from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
About $40,000 was set aside specifically for this outreach to first responders and code enforcement.
Drowning is a leading cause of death for children ages 1-4 in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Health and the full-service swim school Swim Life, which is partnering with the county to help provide the training.
The Sunshine State has more than 1.5 million pools, according to Angie’s List.
David Wiggins, vice president of development for Swim Life, said a wide variety of techniques and training are taught to prevent future drownings around Central Florida.
Pool safety equipment is great, but it can break down, Wiggins said.
“Pool fences break down. Adult supervision breaks down. At the end of the day, the survival swim lesson is the last line of defense,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins and his wife Kelly want to teach everyone, no matter how young, about the roll-and-float method, so when children fall into a body of water, they know how to roll to their back.
Firefighter Chris Martin said he knows firsthand how dangerous a swimming pool can be.
Chris and his wife Christina lost their 2-year-old son, Gunner, to a tragic swimming pool accident.
They had just put him down for a nap.
“He had gotten up without us being alarmed in any way and found his way into the pool,” Chris Martin said.
The firefighter admits, the couple was not prepared, as new parents, on swimming pool safety and is thankful for this week’s training and getting the word out to other first responders.
“I was not educated that we did not have the right pool alarms, the right pool barriers in place. Completely uneducated with all the hazards that come with owning a pool,” Martin said.
The couple set up the Gunner Martin Foundation to create a resource for others about water safety.