Drownings Claim Lives of Toddler, 5-Year-Old : Accidents: A father finds his daughter at the bottom of algae-covered pool. The second death was that of an 18-month-old boy who had been comatose since falling into a back-yard spa Sunday.

Drownings claimed two children Tuesday, including a 5-year-old pulled from a back-yard swimming pool by her father an hour earlier and a toddler who had been comatose since falling into a spa on Sunday.

The 5-year-old, Ann Joo Heun Baik, was pronounced dead at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana at 3:44 p.m.

She had been riding her Big Wheel, a plastic tricycle, in the front yard while her father and a 6-year-old sister washed the family’s car in front of their house, according to Lt. Jay Mendez of the County Sheriff’s Department.

When the father, 41-year-old Soo Baik, realized that Ann was missing, he ran to the back of the Mervyn Place residence. After searching frantically, he saw his daughter lying motionless at the deep end of the algae-covered pool, Mendez said. Baik jumped in and pulled her out, then called 911.

Paramedics administered artificial respiration and took her to the hospital.

Mendez said the child probably rode her tricycle through an open gate in the fence surrounding the pool. It was not known whether the child rode the tricycle into the pool, but investigators said that when they arrived at the home, the toy was sitting near the pool and was wet.

Also Tuesday night, a toddler who had fallen into his family’s back-yard spa during a cookout died at in a Mission Viejo hospital.

Eighteen-month-old Christopher Steven Glass was pronounced dead at 7:20 p.m. in the pediatric intensive care unit of Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center, Orange County Coroner’s Deputy Jacque Berndt said.

A pool in the back yard was equipped with a cover, but the spa was left open, Berndt said.

“His whereabouts were unknown for about two minutes” before somebody found Christopher in the water, she said.

“The dad started CPR, (but) he never regained consciousness. He was on life-support (systems) the whole time” he was hospitalized, Berndt said.

Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death of children under 5 in Orange County, which has one of the highest numbers of pools per capita in the nation.

According to county’s Health Care Agency, 10 children under the age of 5 died last year in pools or spas in the county. Another 43 children under 5 required emergency medical care after near-drownings last year.

“It’s a tragedy that keeps happening, and unfortunately it’s going to happen again,” Mendez said.