JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 2-year-old boy who drowned Monday on Jacksonville’s Northside was found in a neighbor’s backyard pool, according to one woman who told News4JAX she helped with the search for the missing child.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said the pool belongs to neighbors who are out of town.
“There’s no telling how long he’d been in the water,” she said.
The woman told News4JAX her husband called her from out of town to tell her he’d heard from a neighbor that the boy was missing, so she went out with the boy’s family and other neighbors to help look for him.
“I said, ‘Well, let me go out and see what I can do.’ And talked to the mom. And she said they had been lying down for a nap. When she woke up, he wasn’t there,” the neighbor said. “She said it had been about 30 minutes, she thought, since she couldn’t find him.”
The woman said neighbors helped search for another 30 minutes or so before rescue personnel arrived and spotted the boy in the neighbor’s pool near Elmar Road.
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue took the child to a hospital just after 2 p.m., where he died.
“It’s heartbreaking, you know? It’s just a quiet neighborhood, and I’ve lived here for 25 years, and we’ve just never had a tragedy like that,” the woman said. “It’s been very hard, and I’m hoping that parents will be more aware and just realize that it can happen in a matter of minutes.”
It’s unclear how the child was able to access the neighbor’s backyard pool.
Drowning numbers
The tragedy is a painful reminder of a statewide danger as summer begins. The Florida Department of Health says Florida leads the country in drowning deaths for children ages 1 to 4. For that same age group, drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death in the state.
Safety experts warn drowning can happen quickly and silently — and the danger isn’t limited to swimming pools. Any place a child can reach water poses a risk.
How to protect your child
The Florida Department of Health recommends “layers of protection” to keep young children safe around water:
- Constant, active supervision — Designate one adult as a dedicated “water watcher” at all times
- Barriers — Install fences, self-latching gates, and door and pool alarms to alert adults if a child gets out
- Emergency preparedness — Learn CPR, keep a phone nearby, and call 911 immediately in an emergency