A 15-year-old boy nearly drowned at Silver Lake City Beach while swimming with two friends Wednesday afternoon June 2.
The boy was initially taken to Providence Everett Medical Center’s Colby campus in critical condition. He was then taken by ambulance to Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center where his condition was not available Wednesday night, said Everett police Lt. Chris Andersen.
Andersen said it was firefighter Grady Persons who pulled the boy from the water.
“He should get some accolades,” Andersen said.
Battalion Chief Dave Neyens said Persons and two other firefighters had used a boat that the fire department keeps at Silver Lake to get to the boy.
When they got to the point in the lake where they thought the boy went in, the firefighters spotted the boy about 15 feet below the surface.
“(Persons) just dove in, grabbed his arm and came right up,” Neyens said. “It was one of those things, a window of opportunity.”
Eyewitness Craig Ahlson, 38, of Bothell, was just arriving at the beach when he saw some commotion and noticed a boy hadn’t come up from under the water.
Ahlson, who is deaf, wrote responses to written questions from The Herald at the beach shortly after the incident. He pointed out a spot about halfway between the shore and a dock about 100 feet away where the boy went under.
“Two boys were playing in the water with their friend, then he drowned,” Ahlson wrote. “They brought a boat, found him and pulled him out and rushed him to the ambulance.”
Everett police said the boys first thought their friend was messing around when he went under water. They quickly became concerned and yelled for help, police said.
Witnesses called 911 and the boy was under water for about 10 minutes, before he was pulled out by firefighters who were in the boat.
Andersen said the incident appears to be accidental.
“We don’t know what caused him to go under and not come up,” Andersen said.
Everett Police Capt. Mike Campbell said it was too early in the year for city parks and recreation lifeguards to be at the beach. They are generally on duty during the summer months, he said.
Ahlson said the boy didn’t appear to have any family with him at the beach and that the boys were there alone. Other people who were there when the boy went under left within about 30 minutes of the incident, he said.
Victor Balta and Diana Hefley are reporters with The Herald in Everett.
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