Posted on 06/18/2004 5:17:05 AM PDT by Max Combined
FORT WORTH -- More than 1,000 people gathered downtown to mourn the deaths of three youths and an adult who drowned in the city's treasured Water Gardens, where they had gone to cool off because their hotel pool was closed.
A massive sunken fountain designed to create a sense of "pseudo-danger" became a real death trap Wednesday evening when a girl fell into the water and the others tried to save her. All four were from the Chicago area and were in town attending a religious convention.
"My father told me once that God sends his best into the worst situations. We must be God's best," said the Rev. Gerald M. Drew, pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago.
Myron Dukes, 35, took his 8-year-old daughter, Lauren, 13-year-old son, Christopher, and 11-year-old Juantrice Deadmon to Water Gardens to play because the pool at their nearby hotel was temporarily closed, Drew said.
Witnesses said Lauren slipped or jumped into a water feature called the Active Pool. Juantrice fell in as she stretched to help her struggling friend, said Cheryl Johnson, a Fort Worth homicide detective.
Christopher and his father then jumped in to try to save both girls. Five bystanders also went in the water in the failed rescue attempt, Johnson said.
Witness Stephanie Johnson said Myron Dukes appeared to dive down several times as he tried to reach the children.
"It was too late. The suction pulled them all down," she said.
On Thursday, more than 1,000 mourners, many of whom were among the 15,000 people attending the National Baptist Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress, gathered in downtown Fort Worth near the accident site. Some laid flowers near the fountain.
Lt. Kent Worley, a Fire Department spokesman, said bicycle police and firefighters arrived within two minutes of receiving a call at 6:45 p.m., but their rescue efforts were hampered by some type of suction in the pool, which is normally filled with 7 feet of water.
"We don't know if it's the natural hydraulics of the fountain or one of the bodies blocked the drain and caused more of a suction effect," Worley said. "There's 10,500 gallons a minute going through there."
Fort Worth bike patrol officer R.B. Owen told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "We jumped in, and it sucked us right to the bottom."
It was the first time in the Water Gardens' 30-year history that someone has drowned in one of the five fountains, Worley said.
The pools were emptied and dry Thursday morning as the mayor and other city officials toured the fountain and police and engineers combed the site.
"We now have the responsibility to find out what happened and why," Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief said.
The Active Pool is shaped like an amphitheater more than 700 feet wide and 38 feet deep, and water cascades down the sides. Visitors enter via a series of irregular steps and can circle a pool at the bottom as the collecting water rushes below their feet.
Acclaimed New York architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee designed the gardens as an artistic rendering of mountains, rivers and waterfalls. Johnson told a biographer that he designed the largest fountain with "an element of danger."
"He felt the thrill of what he called `pseudo-danger' increased the visitor's appreciation of the park," Franz Shulze told the Star-Telegram in 1993.
The Amon G. Carter Foundation built the gardens in 1974 at a cost of $6 million and donated it to the city. A group of the city's wealthiest families has formed in recent years to restore and maintain it.
"For this tragedy to happen at such a landmark, a place that has been such a pride to the city, makes it all more difficult," said Doug Harmon, president of the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Harmon said recent improvements to the convention center were designed to highlight and showcase the water park, which has become more popular in recent years.
Although park entrances are marked with small brass plaques warning "No swimming or wading," the signs are routinely ignored. Robert McKee, who runs a Web site on downtown Fort Worth events, said he has long thought the gardens were dangerous.
"Kids are in the water all the time," he said. "I've seen people slip on the steps higher up and go in the water. You slip into the bottom and you're dead."
"Maybe the city will wake up now," said Nina Mantello, a volunteer who was at the site handing out water and snacks to a constant stream of Bible school conventioneers.
Terry Litsey, a Fort Worth veterinarian, said he had been to the gardens several times with his children, ages 2, 6 and 8, and never thought it dangerous. He was there Thursday to lay a small bouquet.
"I saw them pull that beautiful child out of the water," he said. "I felt I had to come by and do something."
Does anyone else think that it is suspicious that the hotel (Radisson Plaza Hotel) pool was closed while the 15,000 people attended the National Baptist Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress?
Maybe the hotel did not want a bunch of kids with wet bathing suits in the elevators and running around the halls or were worried about someone drowning in their pool with no life guard, so they arranged to do maintenance during the time this convention was going on.
I saw pics of that fountain....it looks like a disaster waiting to happen.
But no one drowned there for thirty years. There are not many swimming pools, water parks, beaches, or swimming holes that can go that long without a drowning. It seems like someone drowns off the beach in Galveston almost every weekend during the summer.
A big grate about a foot under the surface of the water would have let the water flow through to the drain and yet kept people from being sucked down so far.
You left out a word. "a bunch of Black kids"
This story has all of the unspoken PC elements - a potential race card vs. charges of homophobia.
Yep...sounds like that woulda been a good plan.
This pool is a accident waiting to happen! By the time the lawyers get finished...the city will be out at least $10 million on damages to the family and probably have to tear the entire garden down. I would suggest a urban housing project in its place...lots of friendly folks instead of a terrible water fountain.
I assume your being sarcastic. Have you seen the fountain, looked like a lot of slick steps all leading to the 'pool' at the bottom. The pool that just sucked 4 people to their deaths. It was a lawyers dream.
No. It was closed for six hours to rechlorinate it.
Translation: there had been such heavy usage of the pool, it had to be treated.
Texas law limits negligence lawsuits to $250,000 per occurrence. It appears that Fort Worth will have to pay every bit of that $1 million.
The people admitted they were there to swim in a city fountain.
That fountain is one of my favorite spots in Fort Worth. It's a fountain not a swimming pool. The thing is so old that it was in one of Farrah Fawcett first movies.
Put a sceen just under the surface like one poster said, open the thing back up and tell the knuckleheads to stay the heck out of the water.
I saw a picture of the pool empty, with ladders going to the bottom and a couple of guys walking around in the drained pool. It looked like the total depth might have been 8 or 9 feet, but the water line looked to be more like 7 feet or about a foot above the heads of the guys standing in the empty pool.
There seem to have been quite a few people who jumped in and tried to save the victims and none of them drowned, even though they were not able to bring any of the victims to the surface.
I'm not saying to close it down. I'm just amazed that a safety
grill hadn't been one of the first things done with that fountain. Looks like they took a chance and now will lose a whole lot of money, not to mention that 4 people died because of an oversite.
The city should have planned on stray children IMO.
Well, the first cops on the scene said they were sucked right to the bottom, and had to struggle to get out. Nobody could do anything until the fire department broke into the pump room and shut off the pumps.
Your recommendation for a grate is exactly the solution offered by the city engineer in the Star Telegram this morning.
Others are talking about putting up a fence, but they just as well close the park if they do that.
>>I saw pics of that fountain....it looks like a disaster waiting to happen.<<
Thirty years is a LONG wait...
>>I'm not saying to close it down. I'm just amazed that a safety
grill hadn't been one of the first things done with that fountain. Looks like they took a chance and now will lose a whole lot of money, not to mention that 4 people died because of an oversite.
The city should have planned on stray children IMO.<<
With all due respect, a perfect injury record for THIRTY YEARS suggests it was not an "oversite." This seems more like a "fluke" than anything else - A "perfect storm" in a teapot.
Yep. If there had only been three feet of water in the pool, nobody would have drowned.
That fluke just cost 4 people their lives. One tiny thought of safety would have had the city install the grill years ago.Instead they became careless because no one had drowned yet. Not a good way for a city to be run. But, hey I'm sure after they pay out for this little accident they'll look to other potentially dangerous structures in their city and perhaps take some steps in safety...
But then again they appear to like to see how long they can go before someone gets hurt so who knows.
Not impressed. One accident every 30 years is acceptable to me.
Personal responsibility reigns where I am from. That is especially true after seeing the photo in the post before mine.
A thirty year track record is enough proof for me that it was "reasonably safe" and, more importantly, safe enough.
We cannot reach perfection, so some "acceptable risk" level must be reached. I believe the track record proves that this one was and is "acceptable. I'll tell you one thing, if they get it going again, people won't be going in any more...
Children like water...children fall down which is exactly what happened here. A grate would have been an acceptable safety measure, one the city choose not to take.
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