MIDLAND, Texas — As it gets hotter and hotter, many people may want to take their kids down to the local swimming pool to cool off.
However, accidents always happen and there are only so many lifeguards to keep an eye on hundreds of people.
This is why Midland Fire Department held their annual water safety training day to help brush up on their water safety techniques.
Such techniques included drowning prevention, CPR, rope tossing and proper floating technique.
Drowning causes between 4,000 to 8,000 deaths every year in the United States, and is the leading cause of accidental deaths among kids under the age of 5.
So, learning the proper techniques and wearing the right gear can be the difference between life and death.
“We’re working on being in your life jacket, being in water and practicing different techniques to float in water, also to maneuver safely around debris," said Luke Gary, a firefighter and paramedic with MFD. "We have our helmets and our life jackets. Earlier in the pool, we were floating in different techniques with our legs up, and how we would move towards a potential victim to help rescue them and get them on a rope and get them out of the water."
Of course, there are ways you at home can help teach your family proper water safety drills.
Avoiding high risk behaviors near the pool, teaching your kids to swim and having them wear the proper floatation device is critical to prevent drownings.
But, when worse comes to worst, the MFD is always on call and ready to make a rescue as quick as they can.
Because sometimes, every second matters.
“Ideally, we like to be out of our station in less than a minute, and ideally we'd like to be at the scene within three minutes," said Aaron Cox, a battalion chief with MFD. "So all of that stuff makes a difference. So, when we get it, a lot of times you don't have time to think other than where you're going, so that's why it's so important that we train up and everything flows when we're on scene.”