Arlington Parks and Recreations partnered with water safety agencies to perform a drowning simulation at the Allen Bolden Pool in Vandergriff Park.

The Arlington Fire Department's Dive team performed the simulation as an April Pool's Day event.

April Pool's Day is a national pool safety program that stresses the importance of water safety. Arlington's event included a mock drowning, paramedic-led CPR stations and speakers from water safety groups and the families of drowning victims.

Belinda Fugate and her husband, Michael, spoke about their son's drowning. Brandon drowned at Lake Ray Hubbard on November 29, 2008. It took 29 days to find his body. During the search they realized how limited the resources were, and if the right equipment was available it would not have taken as long to recover his body.

They decided to start a charity called the BMF (Brandon Michael Fugate) project in his honor. Belinda uses her organization to raise money for search and rescue equipment and provide water safety education for North Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

She says it's important to know what to do if you end up in the water. "There are so many ways you can drown, hypothermia can set in and cause someone who knows how to swim to drown," she said.

Berk Guvelioglu's four-year-old son drowned in a summer camp swimming class. He was unconscious for four days and was treated for hyperthermia. At the scene, lifeguards used CPR, but he was still unconscious when Berk arrived at the hospital.

Berk spoke about his experience and highlighted three points in pool safety. "First and foremost being around water is risky. Second, a basic common-sense approach is maintaining line of sight with you child. Lastly, adult supervision is essential," he says. At the prestigious, private school that hosted his son's summer camp, all the lifeguards were teenagers. He feels that may have contributed this to his son's drowning.

Fire Captain Warren R. Muncy was one of the firefighters on hand. He is a 26-year veteran of the Arlington Fire Department and praises the advances in CPR for enabling firefighters to save more lives. He demonstrated how to perform hands-only CPR on a baby or small child. He also spoke about the number of compressions needed to effectively provide blood and oxygen to the body.

"If it's an infant, a child or a drowning situation, you need to use mouth to mouth. If not, use hands-only CPR. In a drowning situation, first call 911 and if you don't know how to do CPR, they will instruct you."

"Hands-only CPR starts two fingers below the breastbone. There you provide compression at the pace of 100 beats per minute.This will supply the body, heart, brain and all the vital organs with good oxygenated blood so the tissues don't begin to die," Muncy said.

As summer approaches, more people will be in the water and an event like this puts emphasis on a constant problem. According to Cookchildrens.org, it only takes an inch of water to drown, and drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death for children 1-4 years of age. Texas leads the nation in child drowning.

For information about CPR classes, look online or visit your local community center. Also there is more information about drowning prevention at Cookchildrens.org.