Dorothy Westerman
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 06/03) - The lack of lifeguard service this year at the Fred Henne beach park put three young lives at risk.

Two 11-year-old friends who swim almost every day at the Long Lake beach location spotted three children in danger, noon Friday.

Only in the water themselves a few minutes, Jasmin Robinson and Kristie Meszaros of Yellowknife saw three young children flailing their arms and sinking under the lake surface.

"There was a boy and two girls who were playing, but then they kept going under," Jasmin said.

What those children did not know, say both girls, is that a deep, dangerous drop-off exists in an area offshore near the line of buoys marking the outer edge of the public swimming area.

"They started panicking and shrieking for help," Kristie said.

"They were around five, six or seven years old, so we immediately swam over," Jasmin added.

With no lifeguard service at the beach, the girls assumed such duties as they swam to the area and told the children to grab their hands.

With panic setting in, the two younger girls in trouble had started clambering over the young boy also in trouble to try to stay afloat.

Once Kristie and Jasmin reached out to the three, the boy was able to swim ashore on his own. Kristie and Jasmin then got both girls to safety.

The three children were met by Jasmin's mother Vicki and a very grateful babysitter.

The children thanked the girls for saving them. Kristie later spotted the near-victims playing happily in the sand.

Mayor Gordon Van Tighem said, Tuesday, he was not told of the incident when it happened, but says up until this year the city provided lifeguard service to the territorial park on a yearly contract basis.

"This year was a very challenging one to get people with the qualifications. We were unable to attract or retain lifeguards," Van Tighem said.

The city had provided lifeguard services to the park for 12 years, said Phil Lee, regional supervisor for Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.

"We made it known to the public in May that it would be an unsupervised beach this year," Lee said.

There are a signs posted at the beach indicating that no lifeguard services are provided. But there is no warning that the lake bottom drops off suddenly at a certain depth.

Johanna Elliot, pool supervisor for the City of Yellowknife, backed up what the mayor said about lack of qualified lifeguards.

"And we didn't have the staff returning that usually return," Elliot explained.