Reading in the news about the father and 2 children that drowned in the swimming pool, the mother is adament that they could all swim. I dont understand what could go wrong with the actual pool to cause this, apert from a pump which I would have thought too weak to cause any issues. Anyone got any ideas as to how this could have happened assuming they were all reasonable swimmers.
I thought the same. But:
She claims there was a fault with the pool. Not sure what fault could drown 3. If there a toxic gas, then I would have thought that would show up in the water and the bodies.
It all sounds very strange.
my thought was a chemical (possibly chlorine) which asphyxiated them.
The reports say that she claims the children were sucked towards the centre of the pool and the father drowned when trying to save them. A drain being opened in the bottom of the pool might cause that, but there simply isn't enough detail to be sure.
I wouldnt have thought that would create a strong enough current.
Normally the pump is circulating the water to filter and maintain chlorination levels. The same plumbing must also work to drain the water and presumably at a much faster rate.
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Seems unlikely that your average pool drain could create enough suction to cause a serious problem.
I do wonder about the electrocution possibility but I wonder if it would be possible for there to be a big enough electro potential between a faulty pool light say and the drain to create sufficient current flow through a swimmer in the pool?
Tim
I read that the pools were unheated. Even in the South of Spain, outside pools at this time of year are going to bring your core body temperature down fast, effectively making you unable to move as your peripheral blood supply is shut down by the brain to protect itself and other core systems.
Being from Nigeria, cold water swimming might not be what they are used to.
Yes.
Not necessarily.
No reason for a much bigger pump for that situation when the pool is drained so rarely. Makes more sense to just wait for it to drain in that situation.
It does, and surely if the younger child could not swim then somebody should have made damn sure she had a floatation device. Here is there is a pool which is for public use, there has to be somebody on duty who has at least rudimentary life guard skills. I do not understand the situation enough to know if there were other pool users, but if there were its doubly puzzling since somebody would have spotted this issue before three people died. There is something missing from this story. Brian
Some sort of cover up seems to be going on. Three people who can swim aren't going to drown for no reason in a pool. I have heard of people being sucked against the outflow pipe.
Is it? I thought it was a hotel pool, ie patrons only.
One report said that as the pool was so small it didn't require a life guard. That's a little strange as you can drown in a inch of water in a baking tray, however many hotel pools are open to patrons at any time without there being an on duty life guard.
Don't think there were any other users, the mother is reported to have been present when the three got into difficulties and went to get help. They were dead by the time she, and presumably assistance, returned.
So little adds up that there is much more information missing from the reports.
Nor me, but I can't think of any other mechanism that would explain the claim made.
You don't read stories of people getting too cold and drowning in outdoor unheated lido's in this country... Sister used to work at one, winter water temp only got down to 12 C or so, cold but not so cold that it gives you hypothermia in a minute or two. South of spain water temp will be a good few degrees higher.
Not in the pool I had at my house in France. The normal drains were at the top of the pool, to maintain a constant water level. However, to empty the pool there was a much bigger drain in the bottom at the deep end. That needed a separate valve to be opened and a more powerful pump to be turned on.
high power pump sucked them all down
is a hypothesis not inconsistent with the facts as we know them, which is not saying much.
+1 to all that.
We have no information on how deep the pool was at its deepest point, what the profile of the pool was (flat bottomed, sloping bottom etc.), whether water was in continuous circulation/filtration through an outflow, where the outflow was if there was one, or whether there was a drain in the centre, connected to a powerful pump for draining/ cleaning/ maintenance, that could have got accidentally switched on for a few minutes and that nobody's admitted to for obvious reasons.
Until there's an independent investigation and all the details are available, we can only speculate.
I heard that "can swim" might have been something of an exaggeration, I could see that if you can't really swim properly, you would tend to put yourself at risk if a relative had already got into trouble and was panicking ...
Lots of rumours and speculation
Indeed. It covers quite a spectrum of abilities. Personally unless you are able to reach a bank, shore or ship in water out of your depth over a distance of about 25m, you can't swim.
I have a black friend who maintains that black people naturally sink (that was his reason for always using the sauna rather than the pool at his gym) while it may be a bit controversial, there does seem to have been scientific research into it ...
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