WRENTHAM, Mass. — A 1-year-old boy died after drowning in a family pool at a Wrentham house Saturday night, police say. Emergency crews responded to Hillside Drive after receiving an emergency call around 8 p.m.
Wrentham Police Chief Bill McGrath said CPR was already in progress when police arrived at the home. The boy was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
“We’ve had these tragic accidents before,” McGrath said. “They seem to happen every year, and this is just what this was -- a momentary lapse of supervision.”
McGrath said there were lots of family members at the house going back and forth from the pool, and he doesn’t think the boy was underwater for very long before someone noticed him and called 911.
Chief McGrath released the identity of the one-year-old boy, Angelo Nicoloro, during a press conference Sunday afternoon.
“It’s usually one family member thinks someone else is watching, and there is a lot of excitement and activity going on,” McGrath said. “It only takes a second. I’ve done this before, and the message is the same: a swimming pool in the yard is like having a bonfire in the yard. It’s a dangerous thing when it’s unattended, and it ends in tragedy.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more children ages one to four die by drowning than from anything else except birth defects.
The CDC has some drowning prevention tips, including learning how to perform CPR, making sure pools are fenced-in with self-closing gates, putting life jackets on young children], and closely supervising children when they are around water.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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