Firefighting chief begs teens to stay away from water after spate of deaths
Emergency response teams across Yorkshire have urged young people to avoid open water swimming sites over the summer after the recent heatwave claimed the lives of at least 17 people nationwide.
One fire service leader said the number of people who have died was “unprecedented” as he reflected on his team’s rescue efforts.
On Tuesday, 11-year-old Mackenzie Swift’s body was discovered after a three day search of the River Don.
He became the fourth young victim of an open water death in Yorkshire alone in recent weeks,
The others who have died include Reco Puttock, 13, who got into trouble at Leadbeater Dam near Halifax, Muhammed Secker, 16, who died in the water at Rother Valley Country Park and 13-year-old girl, named as Palwasha Akbar, who was pulled from the River Wharfe near Skipton.
Chris Tyler, group manager and head of community safety at South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The last few weeks during this heatwave have been incredibly difficult for our crews, both operational and in community safety.
“We’ve had a number of jobs and have had some very challenging and difficult ones.
“The numbers we’ve seen nationally have been unprecedented. It’s been a really bad one.
“The deaths are preventable. Drowning is one of the UK’s biggest causes of accidental death and when the temperatures go above 25 degrees celsius, research has shown you’re five times more likely to drown.
“Open water is different to a swimming pool. The biggest difference is the cold water, when you jump in you get a shock that means you can breathe in water and then panic.
“And then you have cases of cold water fatigue. We get this quite a lot. People will swim out, feel fine but then get fatigued and drown.
“There’s no lifeguards in open water. It can be deeper than you expect, there might be rocks or some people throw trolleys in lakes.”
Mr Tyler said that the number of schools requesting water safety talks, which are already routinely offered by the service, has sharply increased since the recent deaths.
He also said fire and rescue officers will regularly patrol hotspots over the summer to hand out advice about swimming.
He said: “It is difficult. There’s so many hundreds of people that you can’t really police it, and the fire service don’t have the authority to make arrests. But we’re big on making people know the dangers and consequences.
ask people to be aware of the dangers and not go into open water unless it’s an organised event.”
In North Yorkshire, improved signage at popular swimming spot Richmond Falls is being launched by the county’s Local Resilience Forum, and water safety swimming lessons will take place at council-run leisure centres later this month.
And in Leeds, the council’s youth team will be doing outreach work in key locations such as canals, as well as offering free lessons over the summer for children who can’t swim.