City looks to increase swimming pool safety

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- In wake of a weekend swimming pool drowning of a

small boy, city officials are looking into the merits of pool alarms as

an added protection against future accidents.

Councilman Dave Garofalo said Monday he intends to discuss pool

detectors at the next City Council meeting, after learning of the death

of Thunderbird Circle resident Cylar Moss, a 4-year-old boy who drowned

Sunday afternoon.

“This was really a tragic accident, and I don’t know what [the city]

can do as far as education to prevent it,” Garofalo said.

At about 12:55 p.m. Sunday, a neighbor living next door to Cylar in

the quiet cul-de-sac called paramedics after the boy was found floating

face down in his backyard swimming pool.

Police said Cylar apparently climbed a wooden fence partitioning his

home in the 14000 block from the neighbor’s, and made his way into the

pool, where his mother spotted him floating. The neighbor called 911.

Efforts to revive the boy were unsuccessful, and he died at Huntington

Beach Hospital at 2 p.m.

The child’s mother and neighbor, whose names were not released,

declined to comment on the accident.

The city already has some regulations in place governing pool safety,

said Howard Zelefsky, the city’s planning director, adding that permits

are required for all swimming pools, as well as protective fences

standing at least five feet tall with self-locking gates.

Swimming pool alarms detect differences in wave motion or water levels

caused by objects entering the pool with an audible in-house alert to

warn homeowners.

Bob McGrane, a pool equipment store manager, said the alarms are

unpopular because some owners with self-locking gates see them as

redundant, while others like the pristine look of a pool.

According to pool equipment retailers the alarms typically are between

$140 and $160, but can cost more than $200 depending on the type.

Last year, there were 29 drowning deaths in Orange County, two in

Huntington Beach, said coroner officials with the Orange County Sheriff’s

Department. The majority of those accidents, they added, have been in the

swimming pools of homes, apartment complexes and anywhere with access to

the personal water play areas.