Friends Try to Rescue Swim School : Safety: A Northridge woman is forced to close her back-yard business because it violates county codes. She and her supporters want officials to relax the rules.

Supporters of a woman who for 30 years has been using her back-yard pool to teach children how to swim have come to her rescue after Los Angeles County health officials ordered her to shut down her business.

B Burwell, owner of Mrs. B’s Swim School, wants the county to relax its rules for back-yard pools that also are used commercially. “We need to enlighten everybody,” she said. “There are very few swim schools open any more.”

Over three decades, Burwell said, she has taught several hundred preschool-age children how to swim in her back-yard pool each summer. This week she announced that she will close her school because she can’t meet health department requirements for operating a public pool. Burwell has a business license, but never obtained a health department permit.

Prompted by a complaint about chlorine levels, health officials inspected Burwell’s property last week. Although she was not cited for chlorine violations, inspectors said Burwell needed upgraded equipment and determined that the bottom of the pool slopes too steeply from shallow to deep water to meet legal standards, said Richard Kebabjian, director of recreational health programs for the county Department of Health Services--Environmental Health. Burwell said the cost of leveling the bottom of the pool is prohibitive--perhaps as much as $40,000 to $60,000.

Burwell and her supporters are pressuring county Supervisor Michael Antonovich to change the definition of public pools, contending that they bar people from teaching swimming lessons commercially unless they own or can rent large public swimming pools.

Leeta Pistone, senior deputy for Antonovich, said her “phone has been ringing off the hook” from parents who want Burwell’s business to stay open. Pistone said Antonovich was supportive of Burwell, but was not aware of the slope problem.

“If it’s a question of the pool not being sloped right, I think we can work that out,” she said.

But Kebabjian defended the inspectors’ ruling, adding that a pool that slopes downward too steeply can be dangerous: Swimmers unfamiliar with its contours may find themselves in deep water without expecting it, he said. Most of these requirements are included in state law, he added.

“Our feeling is that as long as we know about it and someone gets hurt, the county is liable,” Kebabjian said.

But Burwell’s supporters are still hoping to get the health department order lifted in time for this summer’s swim lessons.

“There is nothing here unsafe for my children,” said customer Francine Hurst of Granada Hills. “Whoever made this decision should really have their head examined.”

Hurst said she prefers Burwell’s swim school to larger operations because of the “love and care they give kids, you just can’t find that.”

“I wouldn’t even go to another swim school,” she added.

Kebabjian said the health department closes down a few back-yard swim schools each year because they are operating illegally. It is possible, although difficult, for home pools to meet the health department’s standards, but few do, Kebabjian said.

Burwell also faces a second hurdle: Besides getting a permit from the health department she also must get a conditional-use permit from the city since her swim school is in a residential zone.

She acknowledges that she knowingly ran the school for years in violation of the zoning and health codes, but said she felt there was no other way to remain in business. Regulators should make exceptions for swimming lessons because so many children die in drownings, she said.

Billie Weiss, an epidemiologist and director of the injury prevention project of the county Department of Health Services--Public Health Program, said drowning is the leading cause of death in children between the ages of 1 and 5 in Los Angeles County, but added that swimming lessons for very young children are not recommended because they may give parents a false sense of security around water.