A father in California rescued his 1-year-old son from drowning on May 16, and it was all captured on Ring camera footage. The father, Zachary Petite, is a firefighter and paramedic at the Hemet Fire Department, and the Hemet City Fire Fighters Association shared the video on social media to warn parents how fast children can drown. The 40-second Ring video showed Petite’s son wandering around the pool, jumping in, and immediately sinking. Petite quickly runs over, lies on the ground at the pool’s edge, and pulls out his son.
Although thankfully this story has a happy ending, many incidents with young children drowning in pools do not. Drowning is the leading cause of death for children 1 to 4 years old, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with an average of 11 fatal drownings occurring per day, or up to 4,000 a year.
‘I looked over and I can't see my son,’ the dad said.
Zachary Petite and his wife are using this scary experience with their toddler Cole to warn other parents about water and pool safety. Cole’s mom, Jessica, explained that it was a frightening experience for all of them, even though she was not outside when it happened.
“All I heard from inside was the screaming and then the crying. It was a very emotional moment,” she told Inside Edition.
Zachary explained that it all happened very quickly.
“I look over and I can’t find him and I ended [up] seeing him sinking to the bottom of the pool. 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,” Zachary said, according to the New York Post.
The father’s quick reaction saved his son’s life.
At the beginning of the clip, the 1-year-old was seen taking off some sort of flotation device before jumping in the water, showing that the parents were trying to follow water safety rules but it only takes a second for things to go wrong.
The Hemet City Fire Fighters Association posted the video on Instagram, warning parents how quickly things can change. Thankfully, this father acted quickly and his son was all right.
“This video is a sobering reminder that a child drowning can happen to anyone at anytime in a matter of seconds,” the association wrote on Instagram. “Even though both parents took all the proper precautions including a gate around the pool and an appropriate PFD, the boy still managed to get in the water. Dad only had his back turned for a few seconds. Thankfully he quickly recognized what occurred and was able to save his son. Remember, children drown without a sound, please watch the water.”
This incident points to the need for water safety education and the scary reality that drowning is a leading cause of death for children.
According to the Children’s Safety Network, drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury death for children 1 to 4, and for children and teens 5 to 19 years old it is the third leading cause of death.
For drowning prevention, the organization recommends a 4-foot-high fence around all sides of home pools, with self-latching gates as well as close, attentive, and constant supervision around the water. When children are ready to start, swim lessons also are necessary to learn how to float and swim safely.
The public has a lot of opinions about the father’s actions and what happened.
Readers of the New York Post article covering the story had mixed reactions to the accident, with some blaming the father and others going so far as to say it looks staged.
As one commenter wrote, “Nah, the female in the pool was already heading for the kid and looking very calm about him, so dad’s heroics look kinda like theatrics in this instance.”
“As a father of three children, who left that child unattended for this to happen?” someone else asked. “The father didn’t ‘save’ the child. He saved himself from child neglect charges.”
Others pointed out the need for pool safety equipment with little ones. “Good job Zachary, but this is EXACTLY why you must have a pool fence if you have little ones, and a pool cover in the non-swimming months. GET THEM!!!”
Someone else, however, defended the dad, writing, “He WAS watching the little boy. He got to him before he was even totally submerged. Why be so judgemental ? It’s easy being on the outside looking in.”
