Fencing Around All Pools Urged

People who sell, rent or lease homes with swimming pools or spas would have to install protective fencing under safety rules proposed Monday by the Orange County Grand Jury.

Current law already requires such fences for new homes and newly installed pools. The stricter regulations would extend them to existing property.

Eight Orange County children under age 5 have drowned this year, most in backyard pools. In Los Angeles County, at least six children below the age of 10 have drowned this year, authorities said.

Earlier this month, a 4-year-old drowned during a pool party at rocker Tommy Lee’s home in Malibu, raising public awareness of the issue.

“It’s only a few seconds,” grand jury member David Armstrong said. “It’s just devastating.”

The Orange County Grand Jury, which took up the matter in January, issued a number of recommendations to make private pools safer. They include requiring owners of pools built before 1996 to add fencing when they sell or lease; eliminating the exception that allows owners to install an alarm instead of fencing; and enforcing existing regulations more strenuously.

Because county regulations cover only unincorporated areas, the report also urged cities to adopt their own stringent regulations.

Grand jury recommendations are not binding, but county agencies, from the Board of Supervisors to the Orange County Fire Authority, must respond to them within 90 days, either by accepting them, partially accepting them or formally disagreeing.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer said he does not need that much time to make up his mind to vote in favor of regulating older pools the same as newer ones.

“We need to clean up that loophole,” he said. “A cover or a fence is part and parcel of owning a pool. It’s just as important as adding chlorine.”

Nationwide, drowning is the leading cause of death for children under 5, said Dennis Shell, spokesman for the fire authority. Orange County, where there are more than 100,000 backyard pools, has one of the nation’s highest number of child drowning deaths, Shell said.

Public safety experts were quick to praise the grand jury proposal.

“Drowning is a true public health care crisis,” said Scott Brown, battalion chief for the Orange County Fire Authority. “It transcends every neighborhood, every socioeconomic level, but it is 100% preventable.”