SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Families in Seminole County on Thursday can get a free pool alarm.
Seminole County and the Seminole County Fire Department partnered with the Gunner Martin Foundation to provide the pool/door alarms, which will be available for pickup at 10:30 a.m. at the Central Branch Library in Casselberry.
The alarms can be installed on doors leading to the pool area and alert the household when the doors are opened.
The Gunner Martin Foundation was started by Seminole County firefighter Chris Martin, a former New England Patriot and University of Central Florida football player, and his wife Christina after their 2-year-old son Gunner drowned in April 2016.
Christina said on Thursday there were things she wished she knew before her son died.
“Getting a pool fence and having multiple layers of protection. I wish the day we moved into that house we got a fence put up,” she said.
Chris talked to News 6 earlier this month about his son’s death and how he aims to raise awareness for other families.
“We had the unfortunate experience of coming out of the bedroom thinking he was asleep, and we learned quickly that he wasn’t,” Martin said. “We had a sliding glass door, and our first thought was to go check the pool.”
Martin and his wife fundraise each year for Gunner’s birthday to provide pool alarms to others in honor of their son.
There have been four child drownings in Seminole County this year.
One of the drownings happened at a home day care in Chuluota. Deputies responded to a home on Nutmeg Court and found a 2-year-old boy on the floor. The homeowner said the boy fell in the pool and was in the water for about a minute, according to a report.
Christina said things like a door alarm, pool net or pool fence could have prevented the child’s death.
“Those would have delayed access and the child could have been saved,” she said.
Pool alarms will be available while supplies last.
You can read more water safety tips from the Florida Department of Health in Seminole County by clicking here.
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