ROCK HILL, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) With many families making plans to spend the holiday weekend at the pool, first responders are warning to keep a close eye on children in water.
“We just hope that, you know, smaller children, the parents are watching them real close because they can disappear in a heartbeat,” said John Boyd, a firefighter at the Lesslie Fire Department with 45 years of experience. Just last week, Boyd says his team responded to a call of a one-year-old child facedown in a pool. The child is now okay, but the tale is a cautious reminder to parents like Tianay Foster, who remembers her own near-drowning experience when she was 12 years old.
“When I was about 11 or 12, I was in a pool in a floatie,” Remembers Foster, “Because of that I always make it a point to teach all of my kids how to swim or to float.”
Foster says her children take swim lessons at the Boyd Hill Recreation Center. She wants them to know how to be safe in the water, just in case the unthinkable happens, and she’s not there to save them.
“I mean a kid is going to be a kid, and no matter how hard you try to keep your eyes on them at all times,” said Foster, “You turn around to look at another kid, it’s taking your eyes off your other child.”
