There were no fatal drownings in Seal Beach last year.
Huntington Beach also reported zero fatal drownings in 2025, according to that city’s website. Long Beach reported zero fatal drownings in 2025, according to SeeCalifornia.com.
In 2025, there were 95 fatal drownings of children less than 5 years old in Orange County, according to an Orange County Fire Authority slide presentation to the June 22 City Council meeting. That was down from 111 in 2024.
In 2026, there have been eight fatal drownings countywide, according to the same presentation.
The OCFA fire chief and the city Marine Safety chief updated the council on drowning prevention at the meeting.
OCFA Division 1 Fire Chief Craig Covey started with an overview about water safety.
“We did have a reduction in drownings last year. So, for the first time in my career, it was the most significant one. It was 15% overall through the Orange County. So, whatever we’re doing worked a little bit last year, but it’s still unacceptable to have any—it is 100% preventable,” Covey said.
He said there were two types of drownings: fatal and non-fatal. He put the difference at three or four to one non-fatal drownings versus fatal drownings.
“A lot of those non-fatal ones are really, really [sic] damaging to people’s health. A lot of them never recover,” Covey said.
“So don’t just focus on that non-fatal or fatal outcome of this,” Covey said.
“According to USA Swimming only half of USA youth can swim. Yet 90% of the parents said their child lived near water this summer,” Covey said.
“Only one in four youth have actually had swimming lessons,” Covey said.
Risk factors, according to Covey, are gender, ethnicity, age, lack of supervision, lack of barriers, swimming ability, and special needs.
He said 80% of the deaths are male.
“Ten people each day die of an unintentional drowning across the country,” Covey said.
According to Covey more adults drown than children. The at-risk age groups are children under 5 and adults over 35, especially age 64 to 65, according to his presentation.
In 2025, 48% of Orange County drownings occurred in community pools and spas, according to the presentation. The ocean accounted for 21%. Backyard pools accounted for 18%.
Covey said the biggest factor was someone being distracted. “Someone truly not watching the children, watching the people in the pool,” Covey said.
“It just takes a second of not watching our kids,” he said.
He said if a child is missing, the water is the first place you should look.
“Because within 60 seconds they’re losing consciousness. At 2 minutes they’re unconscious. Five minutes they start having brain damage and 10 brain death. So it doesn’t take long,” Covey said.
Keys to prevention: Adult supervision, having barriers between your child and a pool, and learn how to swim. He said the 2017 Pool Safety Act now requires pools have two of seven safety features.
Covey said there is no such thing as a safe swimming pool. He said another problem is the drain at the bottom of the pool. According to Covey, hair can get caught in the drain.
He recommended life vests for children and weak swimmers.
Covey said drowning is a quiet event.
Marine Safety chief
Marine Safety Chief Joe Bailey took over to discuss Seal Beach specifically. He said the Marine Safety Department focuses on education first.
He said there was a new program this year, the Los Alamitos Unified School District Third-Grade Water Safety Education program.
“The year before we taught the McGaugh school and one of the other schools, all their third graders, we gave them a 20-minute drowning prevention lecture. And this year, I have this great lifeguard, Courtney Milan, who’s a second-year lifeguard, create a whole new program for us,” Bailey said.
He said there were 24 third-grade programs in the Los Al district.
According to Bailey’s presentation, in 2025 Seal Beach lifeguards took 2,219 preventive actions. Bailey mentioned a recent letter to the Sun praising four past members of the Seal Beach Junior Lifeguard program who rescued boaters before police could arrive. (See “Junior Lifeguards are local heroes,” at sunnews.org.)
Bailey also discussed rip currents. He showed pictures of choppy white water that is murky.
He said if you are in a rip current, swim to the side and then make your way to the beach.
He said never swim alone. He said never dive head first. He said swim near a lifeguard.
According to the United States Lifesaving Association, swimming near a lifeguard changes the odds of drowning to 1 in 18 million.