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!

Was your child in the pool OP?

Pool was dark.
Teachers had no torches/lights to hand and went looking for some.
Kids trying to find thier way to poolside.

But its the parents fault for shining phone lights onto pool so kids could see where the edge of tbe pool was.

Ok! Stupid parents not wanting thier kids to drown in the dark if another child started to panic beside them.

Ffs the pool needs a proper plan in place for some kind of emergency lighting on the pool.

It takes seconds for a child to go under and most drownings are silent. Contrary to popular belief drowning people do not splash and scream the cant scream with water going in thier mouth and lungs.

I dont have kids wrapped in cotton wool but i am damm sure i would have been poolside to find my child too.

Also one of the kids in his class gets panicky from time to time and will grab hold of DS and often sinks him (it's infuriating) In the pitch black...

My ds is 6 and the other children were the same age.

The pool was ropped off in half one half for the lessons and the other half full of just general swimmers and children.

There were two instructors for many children and two lifeguards in what I think is as very big pool. It was horrific and I don't for a second buy that they couldn't have some emergency lighting - the roof is reasonably low in parts

at people calling me a snowflake, it was horrific experience and showed how bad the staff reacted. You could not see a thing as it went from bright lights to darkness in a second.

Drowning doesn't look like the movies - article and video.

DrR that was my thought exactly. Usually calm DD would have probably clung to nearest child. Sounds like a nightmare. Very irresponsible. I would make a complaint and see it through. Surely they have to make changes after that. It could have been a very different ending.

It's weird the pool didn't also have emergency lights but a bit OTT to expect them to have an evacuation plan in the event the power randomly went out. Evacuation plans are for real emergencies.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to contact the building manager or owner to ask about emergency lighting for the pool area though.

The law says they have to have emergency lights and emergency plans. No lighting in a swimming pool is something they should have a plan for.

Brimfire, the term snowflake shouldn’t be applied to anyone who is treating water with the respect and caution it deserves. Most drownings go unnoticed because the body basically can’t phyically do anything, there’s no splashing or crying out, generally people will just slip under and you will only notice something is wrong if you can see the fear in their eyes or the stillness with which they go under the water. If you had ever dived in the dark you would know how disorientating it can be even with some light, once under the water you have no idea which is up or down. I’m horrified at this post. I would immediately find a different swim school and question their procedures in emergencies. For those who think this is an overreaction please please educate yourselves about the danger of water.

It is a council owned pool that is leased to a private company to run.

The rest of the building had power on as we had to exit the Mez floor back into the main building, down a spiral staircase and past reception to get access to the pool.

I can't believe some people are so relaxed about young inexperienced swimmers in a pool in darkness!

I'm a really strong swimmer, and if I was suddenly plunged into darkness mid-length I'd be completely freaked out and disorientated. Horrific is a pretty spot on description - for both the kids and the parents. I can guarantee your instant reaction would be to stop swimming on the spot, so easy for a learner swimmer to go under. You'd more than likely turn around a couple of times to try to locate a light source, by which time you'd have not a clue which direction to swim to for safety. 'Snowflake' posters - get real! It's a bloody scary thing to happen, and the pool should have contingencies in place.

Sounds terrifying OP. Report to the council and if you don’t get a satisfactory answer write to your MP. This could have been a mass drowning, it sounds horrific. I hope everyone was ok.

OP how do you know the pool didn’t have emergency lighting at all? Maybe it did but it failed?

It would be strange to got emergency lights everywhere but leave out just one room?

I would complain to the council.

That is unacceptable. If there was a fire or worse and the pool was in darkness people would be in terrible danger of drowning. There is nothing snowflakey about wanting proper evacuation procedures.

YANBU at all. That sounds extremely dangerous and I can't believe that other posters are trying to minimise this. I would complain in strong terms and make sure you see it through. I certainly wouldn't allow my children back in that pool unless I had seen evidence that emergency lighting had been installed and proper procedures put in place.

If it was pitch black how did you know the emergency lights kicked in in other parts of the building seconds later ?

That does sound horrific, I would have been scared too even though my dc can swim. Going from lights to pitch black instantly would disorientated anybody. It only takes one child to panic, screa, swing about or hang onto somebody else, and another one could be in danger.

My dh is an electrician and he says that legally any public place where people meet should have had emergency lighting. The lights needed are IP rated which are safe for wet areas.

Poor you, I hope you are feeling okay now and calmer. Definitely follow it up with the management as to why the emergency lighting didn’t work and why they didn’t have a plan...

I imagine a number of the smaller kids would be too scared to go back. Awful, yanbu!

Op I would also be very concerned if there are only two instructors for many children even with the lights on! IMO there should be an absolute max of 6 kids to one instructor, pref less. If the kids are not competent swimmers that instructor should either be in the water or standing right next to the child at the edge with no more than 2children swimming at a time. Please find another swim school.

Having emergency lighting that fails is the same as not having emergency lighting. Emergency fail safes cannot fail that's why they are tested so often.

I think this is dreadful. I’m not one for complaining or making a fuss but this is dangerous, as with all emergency procedures, we hope we don’t need to use them, but the procedures need to be put in place (with whatever costs are involved) just in case,
FWIW, my 7 year old is terrified of the dark and isn’t great if her face goes in the water (hence the swimming lessons, which are doing a great job of slowly building her confidence). If she was swimming and all the lights went out she would likely panic and try to grab for anything she could reach. I fear she would go under if it wasn’t the side she grabbed first and if she got another child, she would likely drown them too. It’s really hard for me, as a confident swimmer to stay afloat in the deep end when she grabs on to me, let alone another weak swimmer.
I can’t believe some posters think it’s acceptable that the pool didn’t have a proper plan in place.

Yes but if it fails it fails- testing it once a week only tests that it works at that moment, not for the next few days.

Emergency lighting does fail. Nothing is perfect. Very unlucky for it to happen during a false alarm but potentially the 2 could be related anyway

It is a legal requirement to at least have working escape emergency lighting in a public building (it has to be regularly checked to ensure its working as part of the fire system
Some info here -
www.firesafe.org.uk/emergency-lighting/

anymajor you are right, I don’t think my dd would ever go back if this happened to her. Unconfident to start with, the panic she would feel would put her off for life I reckon.

Sounds really scary. YANBU.

Nitro's original comment was twattish at best and now the rest of her(?) comments have been deleted I can only assume there was further twattery. Parents aren't "stupid snowflakes" for not wanting their kids to drown - it kind of goes without saying doesn't it?