JACKSONVILLE, Fla.
\n \u2014 A new study from the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department found that more men in their 30s have drowned in Jacksonville during the past five years than women and children, as city leaders work to identify ways to prevent future deaths.<\/p>\n
The findings were presented during the third meeting of Jacksonville\u2019s Special Committee on Drowning Prevention, which was formed after two autistic children drowned in privately owned retention ponds just weeks apart.<\/p>\n
According to JFRD, there have been 291 calls for service related to drowning incidents in Jacksonville during the last five years.<\/p>\n
Of those incidents, 83 occurred at private pools, 77 happened at the beach and 26 were reported at retention ponds.<\/p>\n
JFRD\u2019s data also showed that men accounted for 67% of drowning incidents, compared to 33% involving women.<\/p>\n
More than 100 drowning incidents occurred within five ZIP codes across Jacksonville. The two ZIP codes with the highest number of incidents included Jacksonville Beach and the Huguenot Memorial Park and Heckscher Drive area, where most incidents occurred at the beach.<\/p>\n
However, officials said one inland ZIP code also stood out.<\/p>\n
\u201c32256, we had 20. What stood out for me here was in that ZIP code we have five pond-related incidents there. So we can definitely look at that and see what we can do to change that,\u201d a JFRD representative said.<\/p>\n
The Northside was also identified as one of the areas with a high number of drowning incidents.<\/p>\n
One statistic that surprised some city council members was that the age group with the most drowning deaths between 2020 and 2026 was adults ages 30 to 39.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville City Council member Tyrona Clark-Murray questioned whether ethnicity and swimming experience could be factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m wondering about ethnicity. I\u2019m wondering if those 31 people had actually taken swimming classes,\u201d Clark-Murray said.<\/p>\n
Suzi Teitelman, a Red Cross swim safety instructor in Jacksonville Beach, said the findings were not surprising.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalf of my swim lessons are adults,\u201d Teitelman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not surprising. It\u2019s not surprising at all,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
While adults ages 30 to 39 accounted for the most drowning deaths, JFRD also found children remain a significant concern.<\/p>\n
According to the department, children younger than 10 accounted for nearly half of all drowning incidents, with children ages 0 to 4 representing 36%.<\/p>\n
Teitelman said adults should be proactive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI speak to the parents that you got to become the coach like me. I\u2019m giving you the exact movements and don\u2019t forget them,\u201d Teitelman said.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A new study from the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department found that more men in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12833,23732,18613,166521,166519,2653,969,116,118,117,5729,37043,66616,12814,634,644,656,52196,17815,166520],"class_list":["post-421993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news_shack","tag-city_hall","tag-councilman","tag-gaffney_junior","tag-huguenot-hexer_drive","tag-inland","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville_beach","tag-jacksonville_city_hall","tag-jacksonville_fire_rescue_department","tag-jfrd","tag-local","tag-madison","tag-madison_foglio","tag-madison_fuglio","tag-red_cross","tag-susie_teitelman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}