- The Hemet Firefighters Association shared the video on social media
- The father who rescued the child works at Hemet Fire Department
A Southern California firefighter saved his one-year-old son from drowning in a pool on Tuesday.
The Hemet Firefighters Association shared a video on social media, asking parents to pay close attention to how quickly children can drown.
The boy, Cole, is too young to have learned how to swim.
The 40-second video shows the boy walking around the side of the pool after he has removed his flotation device.
He sits on the edge and then drops in, with his father quickly rushing to scoop him out.
© Provided by Daily Mail The 40-second video shows the boy walking around the side of the pool before he sits on the edge
© Provided by Daily Mail After he drops in, his father quickly comes to his rescue and pulls him from the water
The association said that the father is Zachary Petite, a fire engineer and paramedic at Hemet Fire Department and Cole is his youngest son.
Petite lays the boy out on his back on the poolside and he is visibly still conscious.
‘This video is a sobering reminder that a child drowning can happen to anyone at anytime in a matter of seconds,’ the Hemet Firefighters Association said on Facebook.
‘Even though both parents took all proper precautions including a gate around the pool and an appropriate PFD [Personal Flotation Device], the boy still managed to get in the water.’
‘Remember, children drown without a sound, please watch the video,’ the association added.
Petite told local news outlet KTLA that his son was sinking to the bottom of the pool when he fell in.
The boy can be seen at the side of the pool. There is a girl swimming about in the water
© Provided by Daily Mail
‘I look over and I can’t find him and I ended [up] seeing him sinking to the bottom of the pool,’ Petite said.
‘So that’s when I went over there, scooped him out and got him out of the pool.’
‘For parents out there, if you got a pool, make sure it has a gate, a child safety lock, door alarms,’ he added.
Hemet Fire Captain David Prietto said the father did everything right.
‘Zach was right there. He was literally within arm’s reach. He followed all the rules, he took all of the proper precautions, that is really the reason why his son lived,’ he said.
Meanwhile, the Hemet Fire Department is using this incident to alert the community and stress the importance of pool safety.
‘We can’t stress it enough, it happened to engineer Petite and it can happen to anyone,’ said Hemet Fire Chief Eddie Sell. ‘Seconds do count.’