Mesa Fire unveils new drowning prevention program

MESA, Ariz. — With weekend temperatures forecast well over 100 degrees, many people will be hitting the pool.

In response, the Mesa Fire Department unveiled its new drowning prevention plan on Thursday.

Mesa Fire is reminding parents to watch kids around water like a hawk. This campaign, titled “I Remember,” features a powerful must-see video for all parents and grandparents, in which two Valley moms who lost children in pools describe the impact.

Allison James lost her 2-year-old son Ian in 2013. She had all of the proper safeguards in place: Pool fence, locking doors and gates. She went to turn on a sprinkler and, in that brief time, her two sons accessed the pool with a high chair they took outside.

“If I can save someone else’s baby it will make all the difference in the world,” she said. “It won’t bring my baby back but hopefully I can someone the heartache.”

James wants all parents to start to train their child, beginning at 10-months-old, about water safety to teach them how to get out of the pool on their own and how to float for just that short time that parents would need to get to them.

Mesa Fire said their goal is to save lives and become a blueprint with this campaign for the rest of the nation.