SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Christopher Fearon was in the right place at the right time in July when a 5-year-old boy nearly drowned at an apartment complex in Altamonte Springs.
Fearon was also the right person to come to the child’s rescue. He happens to be a firefighter and paramedic at Station 34 in Orange County.
He was off duty, enjoying a day at the pool with his own kids when he jumped into action.
“I saw the little boy earlier in the day. He was wearing floaties,” Fearon said. “I saw the mom jump into the pool fully clothed. So, that looked odd to me. And next thing you know, I’m seeing her pull his limp body from the bottom of the pool.”
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Fearon said the boy’s face was purple. Before he even registered what was happening, his body was already moving thanks to his training.
“It was just, like, an instant,” Fearon said. “One moment I saw him running around the pool, the next moment he’s being pulled up from the bottom very fast.”
Every second matters when a life is on the line.
“Kids really decline very fast if they’re not breathing. So, even just waiting for the paramedics to get there, he would have been decompensating. So, me being there at that moment really gave him a boost at getting better faster.”
It’s the first time Fearon said he’s saved someone’s life while he’s been off duty.
“This situation unfolded right before my eyes,” Fearon said. “He was still gasping. So, I flipped him over, let him get that water out. As soon as some of the water came out, he was able to take a deeper breath.”
Fearon said in that moment he took a deep breath too — a sigh of relief.
“It felt like a lifetime, sitting there watching him gasp for air, but he did it,” Fearon said.
At the same time Fearon was tending to the child, a crew with the Seminole County Fire Department was rushing to the scene.
Wolff Charles is a firefighter and paramedic at Station 22 in Seminole County who responded to the call that day.
“Pediatric drowning. And obviously, we see ‘pediatric’ in our notes and a flip switches,” said Charles.
Charles said when they arrived, the boy was still out of it.
“They get him out of the pool. They get the water out of him, and he’s not really with it when we pull up,” Charles said. “So, we basically do everything we can to stimulate them, like starting external rubs. For kids we want to see them crying, yelling. That’s normal. For him, not so much what he was doing.”
Charles and the crew he was with transported the boy to the hospital.
“In all honestly, early prevention makes our job so much easier — especially by someone who knows what they’re doing,” said Charles. “The fact that he was able to hand off the patient to us, give us all the information we needed so we can continue doing our job without any extraneous information we have from people who may be emotional on scene. It helped extremely.”
On Friday, Fearon was honored with a life-saving award and was recognized by both Orange County Fire Rescue and the Seminole County Fire Department for his heroic actions.
Fearon said he became a firefighter paramedic because he wants to help people in his community.
“This is, honestly, it’s all I wanted to do since I was little,” Fearon said. “It’s kind of awesome to see it all come together and see me be able to put my skills to the test and actually be able to help people for a living.”
“You have a call to serve your community,” News 6 Seminole County Community Correspondent Catherine Silver said.
“Yes, and I love it. I wouldn’t give it up for anything else,” Fearon replied.
Charles also echoed the call to serve.
“It’s a humbling experience,” Charles said. “A lot of us come from different walks of life. It’s strange that this awesome responsibility gets put on us, but it’s very nice to be able to make a difference directly.”
News 6 learned this week that the young boy will learn how to swim thanks to a swim scholarship from the Gunner Martin Foundation. The organization was founded by a firefighter in Seminole County and his wife after they lost their own son in a tragic drowning.
The foundation teaches other parents about water safety and provides them with pool alarms and free swim lessons.
Charles said it’s an important reminder ahead of a holiday weekend. Already this year has proven to be dangerous for child drownings in Seminole County.
“I know there might be other things going on, especially if someone’s having a party, maybe trying to celebrate the holiday. Things can get away from us, and you need to have somebody with their eye on them at all times, have barriers up,” said Charles.
He said the most important thing is swimming lessons.
“This is Florida. We’re around pools. We’re on bodies of water,” said Charles. “Getting that child a way that they can survive until help arrives is the best prevention we can ask for.”
You can access more resources for drowning prevention shared by Seminole County below:
- Florida Department of Children and Families’ Child Fatality Prevention — Florida Department of Children and Families (myflfamilies.com) for statewide data on drownings.
- Choose the “Statewide Data” link and filter by year and cause of death.
- Florida Department of Health’s WaterSmartFL — Drowning prevention information, resources, events and laws.