Santa Ana Boy, 8, Drowns in Apartment Pool

An 8-year-old boy who couldn’t swim was found dead at the bottom of his apartment complex pool Wednesday after an all-night search by police and the boy’s family.

Andres Quiroz had gone to the pool about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday with his 9-year-old brother, Carlos, but both boys kept to the shallow end, said Francisca Quiroz, 28, the boys’ mother. The brothers got out of the pool an hour later, but the Lowell Elementary School second-grader must have returned for another dip, she said.

When he did not come inside several hours later, the family called police and launched a neighborhood search. The search team checked the pool, but murky water made it impossible to see the bottom, said Santa Ana Sgt. Bob Clark.

“We looked house to house. We checked the pool,” he said. “At midnight, the father thought that the boy must have gone to one of his friends’ house.”

Clark said officers prodded the pool bottom with a pole, and Andres’ uncle dived to the bottom, but they were unable to find the boy. In the morning, an officer decided to try the pool’s deep end one more time and found the body.

Andres, who has seven brothers and sisters between the ages of 2 months and 10 years--loved playing soccer with school friends and adored little toy cars, his mother said. Wednesday, his mother and the boy’s father, Rene, wept in the family’s two-bedroom apartment, just yards from the now-drained pool where their son was found about 9 a.m.

Francisca Quiroz said the family has lived in the apartment in the 1000 block of West Bishop Street for about a year, and never before had a problem with the children going to the pool unsupervised.

“I never worried [about the children drowning] because the other manager never unlocked the pool gate--only on Saturdays and Sundays,” she said.

The current manager, who could not be reached for comment, locks the pool gate about 8 p.m., Francisca Quiroz said.

Drownings--the main cause of death among Orange County children younger than 5--increase dramatically as the weather warms, officials said.

“These last couple of days have been really hot, so the kids are really attracted to the water if there’s a pool anywhere in the vicinity,” Clark said. “It’s all the more important for the parents to watch. Any time there’s a pool around with kids around, you just have to take every precaution that you can.”

Orange County Fire Authority spokeswoman Emmy Day said it is not uncommon for older children--even those who know how to swim--to drown.

“This is a tragic example of that,” she said. “There is no substitute for parent vigilance where there’s a pool or a spa near a kid, whether they are 8 years old or 3 years old. If you have a pool or spa in your backyard, you just need to know where your kids are every minute.”

According to the Drowning Prevention Network of Orange County, anyone with a pool or spa in their yard should install barriers and fencing that completely surround the pool. The fence should be at least 5 feet high, with a self-closing gate that opens away from the pool. The gate should latch at the top, out of the child’s reach.

The pool at the Quiroz apartment is surrounded by such a fence, but the gate was open Tuesday night, Francisca Quiroz said.

Pool covers, alarms and automatic door closers can also enhance protection around a pool, according to the Drowning Prevention Network.