Three people in Orange County died as a result of drowning over the weekend, during a weekend in which OC authorities said they received more drowning calls than ever.
A 53-year-old man, 57-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy died in separate drowning accidents between Friday and Saturday and a 3-year-old girl was in serious condition after nearly drowning.
Tac Green, 53, had gone swimming early Friday morning at the Deer field Townhomes in Irvine. According to firefighters, the mistake Green made was that he swam alone.
"There were some roofers that were working and saw him swimming and all of a sudden wasn’t," pool cleaner Carolyn Nunes said. "So that’s why people here were assuming heart attack, because he was face down and still floating."
Suzanne Fisher, 57, went swimming at the Vagabond Motel on the 3500 block of Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa and was found unresponsive Friday evening. She was taken to the hospital and died just before 2 a.m. Saturday.
A 15-year-old boy whose name has not been released went swimming in the backyard of a home on the 11500 block of Desmond Street in Garden Grove during a social gathering Saturday night.
When friends noticed the boy was missing, they checked the backyard and found him at the bottom of the pool. The teen was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
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The owner of the home told NBC4 that the teen was a friend of his son’s and that the boy was too embarrassed to admit he didn’t know how to swim.
A 3-year-old girl was in serious condition after she nearly drowned in a community spa in an Irvine townhome complex on the 3300 block of Esperanza Saturday evening. A bystander noticed the girl at the bottom of the spa and pulled her out.
Though pool safety is often a concern in regards to children, authorities suggest all people need to take caution. According to the Orange County Fire Authority, of the 30 drownings so far this year, 19 have been deaths of people 50 years old or older.
"Every single one of the 30 drownings we’ve had this year, we’ve looked at all of them, every single one was preventable," OCFA Capt. Steve Concialdi said.
Paramedics said the common thread in those drownings is that adults tend to swim alone and don’t think they’ll need help.
"(They could have) a diabetic reaction, low blood sugar, light headed dizziness, chest pains, a cardiac arrest," Concialdi said.
Concialdi urges all swimmers to "be cautious," regardless of age, and encourages adults to implement a buddy system when swimming.
