LAKE STEVENS — A 13-year-old boy died in an apparent drowning Sunday evening in Lake Stevens, while two other children remained in critical condition after being rescued from the water.
Temperatures peaked around 89 degrees Sunday at the lake, and around 100 people were spending the evening at Davies Beach on the southwest shore.
Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue received the emergency call at 5:43 p.m. People had already pulled two kids — a boy, 12, and a girl, 15 — from the water.
Rescue divers recovered the third child in about 10 feet of water in the beach’s marked swimming area, Snohomish County Regional Fire and Rescue spokesperson Peter Mongillo said.
Emergency responders performed CPR on the three children, who were taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. The 13-year-old was pronounced dead, Mongillo said. The other two children were still in critical condition Monday.
None of the three swimmers wore a life jacket.
Mongillo urged parents to be present and active when children are swimming in places without a lifeguard on duty, such as Davies Beach. The beach has a sign to warn people there is no lifeguard, Mongillo said.
“If you are bringing kids to a park on a lake or a river, and if they’re going swimming, you have to be the eyes and ears for them when they are out in the water,” he said.
There is a life jacket loaner locker at the beach, Mongillo said.
“I can’t think of a time fire crews have rescued a child from 10 feet of water who was wearing a life jacket,” Mongillo said.
The Lake Stevens Police Department was investigating details of what led up to the incident.
The identity of the deceased child had not been made public as of Monday evening.
Among children 14 and younger, drowning is the second-most common cause of “unintentional injury-related death,” the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office has noted. The recent patch of sun has brought with it water rescues for local authorities. On Monday, another was reported in Monroe. Over the weekend, recreators were reported in distress in waters in Mukilteo, Snohomish and Edmonds.
Even when the weather is hot, Puget Sound and other local bodies of water can be deceptively cold.
Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue has several tips for kids’ water safety.
• Choose an adult to be responsible for watching the children.
• Teach children that swimming in open water is not the same as swimming in a pool.
• Make sure kids learn water survival skills, including treading water, combining breathing with forward movement and turning around in the water to orient themselves.
The fire department has an assortment of life jackets swimmers can borrow at Station 31 in Monroe. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 163 Village Court, according to Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue’s website.
Kids are not the only ones at risk in Snohomish County waters. A diver in Mukilteo went missing earlier this month and hadn’t been found, as of Monday. He has been identified as Hans Korompis, a 33-year-old chef from Edmonds. In less than a day, an online fundraiser for Korompis’s family had brought in over $10,000.
Herald writers Jake Goldstein-Street and Ben Watanabe contributed to this story.
Ellen Dennis: 425-339-3486; edennis@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterellen.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
