Lynn FD: Close watch key to summer water safety

LYNN – District Fire Chief Stephen Archer has responded to drowning reports during his 20-year career, and he hopes swimmers and boaters this summer will combine water safety skills, personal awareness and common sense to prevent tragedy.”Every year we have calls for boaters in trouble or near drownings: It’s all too common,” Archer said.Although Breakheart Reservation and beaches connecting Lynn with Nahant are assigned state-hired lifeguards during warm months, local ponds like Sluice and Flax and other waterways are not monitored.Archer said swimming in pools and public waterways should always involve an adult supervising a child and swimmers of all ages swimming together or with someone watching poolside or from the shore.Beachfront swimming should only be done in posted areas with a lifeguard supervising, Archer said. All boaters navigating fresh or salt water should wear life jackets.”Always supervise a child – don’t let them out of your sight for even a minute. Children drown quickly and silently,” Archer said.He urged parents to sign up children for swimming lessons at a young age, and the YMCA on Neptune Boulevard offers lessons and plans to stress water safety during the week of June 30 to July 3.Fire Capt. Daniel Lozzi has responded to at least four drowning reports during his career and said the tragedies involved “someone who lost track of someone.””You can’t take your eyes off kids,” he warned.Fire Capt. Jay Uva said ponds like Flax, where drownings have occurred, contain underwater vegetation, including eel grass, that can tangle a swimmer’s feet. Underwater hazards and currents also pose risks to swimmers.Lozzi and fellow firefighters trained in Sluice Pond Thursday with one of two 12-foot-long inflatable boats stored on trailers at the Western Avenue and Broadway fire stations. Archer said firefighters practice responding to a drowning report quickly and putting the boats in the water so firefighters can use life vests, safety lines or grappling hooks to assist struggling swimmers or capsized boaters.”We want to deploy quickly to someone in trouble and get them out of the water as quickly as possible,” Archer said.Assistant Public Works Commissioner Lisa Nerich is a veteran city youth program supervisor who said adults always need to supervise children around water. A water fountain splash pad is located next to Flax Pond playground, and another splash pad is being built on Neptune Boulevard next to Robert McManus Field. Nerich said the pad will be spraying water by June 30.