Companies partner to advocate for pool safety | News

Two West Valley companies are partnering to give away a free pool fence with the overall goal to prevent child drownings. 

“Awareness and education are key to preventing drownings,” said Tim Maloney, owner and founder of Arizona Pool Fence. 

Maloney and Dane Palmero — owner of Overflow Pool Construction and Repair — teamed up to protect kids and advocate for pool safety.  

The two started referring clients to each other when either would notice safety issues that the other could fix in a client’s pool. They decided to give away  a free pool fence — valued at $1,500 — to promote both of their companies and bring awareness to pool after. This was after Palmero started an offshoot affordable pool company, Simply Fun Pools. 

“We’re so thrilled to be able to do this,” Maloney said. 

“I was on Phoenix fire for 25 years and I was on eight drownings in my career. So, I started my business 23 years ago on my off days to try to prevent drowning.” 

To enter the contest, residents can  email [email protected] with the subject line “Pool Safety Contest” and include their name, phone number, address and a photo of their pool with a brief paragraph on why their family is most in need of a pool fence this summer. Submissions will be accepted until May 31. The winner will be contacted on June 15. 

“The No. 1 thing is let’s put up this barrier the safest way possible,” Maloney said. 

Besides hosting the contest, Maloney and Palmero are trying to spread awareness and education through the ABCs of drowning prevention which are adult supervision, awareness, barrier systems and then swim classes and CPR. 

“You turn your back and that child goes in a lot of times you do not hear that child go in, drownings are silent,” Maloney said. 

“So, you always got to be aware and you always got to have adult supervision around pools. Fifty percent of the drownings that have occurred in the last few years were actually with people in the backyard with kids. So, education and getting it out there is so important.” 

Palmero said, as a builder, he tries to make pools safer. That includes ensuring the pool in sight of the house, putting the fence around the pool in the safest way possible and looking for any hazards — like items or structures kids may use to climb over a fence or into another backyard with a pool. 

Maloney added that it is also important to keep toys out of the water, as that will draw children toward the pool. 

“Fence barriers are not babysitters, they buy you time. … So adult supervision is key on that and keeping toys and chairs away and things away from the fence,” Maloney said. 

“I also always like to see layers of protections, like the doors that lead to the backyard are self-closing with a high latch system at 54 inches. If you have those layers of protection, those layers buy you more time. So that’s what I always like to see on properties.” 

Both said they hope to see a few things happen as it pertains to pool safety. The first one CPR  training in middle and high schools. 

“When I went to school you had to take certain classes like PE … but they don’t have life support or teaching emergency things like CPR,” Palermo said. “Which they should because you never know, you could be at a movie and somebody could have a problem and it would be neat to have everybody there trained.” 

They would also like to see the state set aside funds to help people who can’t afford fences, as well as the return of the Phoenix Fire campaign, Just A Few Seconds. 

“I think (the campaign) is on the rise again, I sat on the committee for it and they’re really trying to ramp that back up again,” Maloney said. 

“So, I think the campaign is going to get out there more and we need to get it out there faster. 

“We don’t need a tragedy to push us to do it, it just needs to be done year round — no matter what.”

That’s because “drownings don’t pick a season, they happen year round,” Maloney said.