Furious with local swimming pool

[Ieatcake]

Very large pool, power cut in the middle of children's lessons. The rest of the building had emergency lights that kicked in a second later apart from the pool. Dozens of parents rushing from the mezzanine level and using their phones to check on the children. Staff took several minutes to locate a few dim torches and didn't have a. Clear evaction plan.

Aibu to think that just isn't acceptable? The gym, reception, studio changing rooms all had emergency lights but not the pool and it was pitch black. Will they have broken the law? A mad adrenaline rush for everyone!

Absolutely loathe the term snowflake, it's so dismissive, urgh

I think even a strongish swimmer could panic in the dark and how would the life guards see what was going on? Not an over reaction to be angry and want to know what improvements they will be putting in place

That’s not good. When mine went to a franchise swim academy class a few years back, there was clear evacuation plans and instructions about what to do in an emergency.

I don’t know any parent who wouldn’t have raced down to their child in this situation. It’s instinctive.
I’m sure that in the short time since this happened there will be measures in place like very bright torches quickly available and plans for emergency lighting.
Contact your local paper and kick up a fuss.

YANBU at all.

Not U to expect the pool to have a backup lighting or for there to be a plan in place for an evacuation.
I expect they will now add stampeding parents impeding the evacuation plan to their next risk assessment.

That doesn't sound right at all - pools should have clear visibility at all times, they can't open if the water is cloudy because they won't be able to see the swimmers, never mind no lighting at all!

Did they have any foil blankets or anything like that? For the swimmers that had to get out?

Was it a local authority/council run pool or a private health club? I'm guessing private club actually!

I think nitro is a bit hysterical her/his self. Anyone can see that a bunch of probably mixed ability kids, many of whom would have been frightened by suddenly being plunged into darkness, not to mention disorientated were actually in danger here. Water is oh so dangerous and it’s perfectly possible for a child to drown in full view of adults let alone in the pitch black. I would be so angry. Is it the local councils swim school or an independent company hiring the pool. I would suggest anyone thinking op overreacted looks up the RNLI videos on drowning and how easy it is. Complaceny round water costs lives every year. There’s no room for error where water based activities are concerned, it makes me so angry when people don’t appreciate the dangers of water.

They should have at least emergency exit lighting so it wouldn't be pitch black - if they don't then they would fail on fire safety regulations- I know it's a big body of water but they still need to be able to evacuate the building in the event of a fire.
If there really was no lighting at all rather than it was quite dim but not pitch black - I would write a short and to the point complaint pointing out the lack of emergency lighting and if you felt strongly enough copy in the local fire brigade.

I can swim, I can swim in the sea, rivers etc, fairly confident but if I was suddenly plunged in to blackness I would probably have a bit of a panic as i don't like the dark,
It's not inconceivable to see that a child could panic and accidently swim to the deep end if they got disorientated, or hit thier head or a million other things

"It wouldn't be easy to maintain emergency lights in a pool area. What with high ceilings, bad access, humidity and water."

No harder to have emergency lighting than ordinary lighting. Emergency lighting just runs from a different power source than the main lighting. All safely installed.

Of course it was a potentially very unsafe situation. OP: I would write to the council.

I don't understand the point about lots of lifeguards around. How would they know someone had banged their head and gone under in the pitch black? How would they know what part of the pool the child was in? what if some of the other kids panicked and in the scramble to get to the side pushed another child under and they panicked? How would anyone know? Children can drown in a very short time.

I'd be terrified if my 5 year old was in a lesson and that happened.

Not hysterical at all. I (and my dcs) would have been really shaken by this.

In legal terms, they surely need to have a risk assessment. And the risk of a power cut is a fairly obvious one. Whether or not they are specifically required to have emergency lighting, I don't know, but the fact that the teachers apparently didn't have a procedure to follow would really worry me. And I'm not prone to hysteria at all.

This sounds really bad. I would complain and ask what they are going to do to prevent it happening again.

I’m guessing nitro either hasn’t got kids/anyone they care about or is not bright enough to understand the danger of water. Either way under no circumstances should they ever be left with kids in a pool. I suspect if they have kids they’re probably lying on the side paying no attention to them because Chelsea-mai-tiger-Apple is wearing armbands and absolutely fine to swim in the deep end at age 2 without a swim nappy.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me too.

Also wondering if they have emergency lighting for the pool but it failed
A pool with no emergency lighting is cray cray!

I would have thought they should have emergency lights and I can assure you that humidity wouldn’t be a problem as otherwise no swimming pool would have lights.

Any large public space should have emergency lighting. A swimming pool is particularly dangerous.

How did you know the rest of the building came on if you were in the pitch black?

I like the term snowflake. Sums it up beautifully. Although I can't see why a pool would be the only place without lights as it is pretty dangerous.

How can people think this isn’t a big deal? These are children who are learning to swim. I’m an adult who can swim and I’d be really scared!

The dark is disorientating anyway, then there’s the water and people panicking!

I would be seriously unimpressed with that. If they don't have emergency lighting then torches shouldn't take several minutes to locate and they shouldn't be dim.

YANBU. I'm not sure I'd be furious but I'd be and suprised!

Jesus I'd be furious. My 3 yo goes in a class of 4 kids one teacher. Obviously he can't swim but uses a noodle. Occasionally he will let go of the noodle and sink and I rely on the teacher keeping a close eye and rescuing him. She couldn't do that in the pitch black could she? This has given me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it!

Yanbu at all.

I'd get a fright!