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Father Electrocuted In Pool Trying To Save Daughter — Water Electrified By Faulty Wires

By Shelley Hazen
Published on: 00:03 PST, Mar 31, 2016

Any parent would’ve done the same thing Jim Tramel did on Easter Sunday. After finding his daughter unconscious in the family swimming pool, he jumped in to save her.

But as soon as he hit the water, he was electrocuted. He died later that day and the girl, also electrocuted, is now fighting for her life.

What this heroic father didn’t know was that the water had become electrified, possibly due to faulty wiring in an underwater light, a preliminary investigation has found, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“Your first instinct is to dive in and rescue your child. I think a lot of people unfortunately would have taken that route,” Palm Springs police Sgt. William Hutchinson. “He may not have known… what was going on.”

Five others were hurt in the electrified water, he and his 9-year-old daughter the most severely.

According to the Desert Sun, police in Palm Springs, California, were called to the home in the afternoon. The initial 911 call reported everyone was “turning blue after jumping into the pool.”

Emergency personnel arrived to find relatives performing CPR on two people — a 43-year-old man and his child, 9. People said that they experienced a “tingling feeling” while swimming.

Police later discovered that Jim had seen his daughter at the bottom of the pool and that she was not moving. He instantly jumped into action to save her and dove into the water.

What he didn’t know is she had been electrocuted. Tramel immediately lost consciousness, and he had to be pulled from the pool after he tried to save his daughter.

A half-dozen people were in the pool at the time, and all suffered some level of electrocution. Those who were nearest to the faulty fixture suffered the most severe injuries, including Jim, his 10-year-old a daughter, and the girl he tried to save. His wife, a boy, aged 6, and two other girls, aged 6 and 8, were treated on the scene.

Two of his daughters, the ones most severely electrocuted, are still in the hospital. The youngest is in critical condition, while the older girl in stable condition. The heroic dad died in the hospital on Sunday after being electrocuted.

The family lives in the San Francisco area. The house, in Palm Springs, has been in the family for generations. They visit twice a year.

A neighbor, Philip Cooper, said the houses in the neighborhood date to the 1960s, and he didn’t know whether the electrical system at the Tramel’s home had been updated but noted that his required an upgrade to a standard, fast-acting circuit breaker after he moved in. An inspector has since visited the home and noted that such freak accidents are rare.

Hutchinson noted that if anyone suspects their pool has become electrified for any reason, the electrical circuit breaker to the lighting and pump systems should be shut off immediately.

“Obviously at this point, we think it’s completely accidental. I have a pool. I got to tell you, it scared the heck out of me. Thinking about that pool, I went home and scheduled a contractor.”

Tramel worked at marketing technology company RevJet. Its CEO and founder, Mitchell Weisman, created a GoFundMe page Monday, which has raised almost $150,000 so far, SF Gate reported. He said the child Jim tried to save is now in intensive care.

A man who lives next door, Scott Van Dyke, called the family “lovely.”

“He was a loving husband, with kids and a wife. I can’t imagine… how their world’s been turned upside down.”

A child recently saved her mother after finding her unconscious in the pool; the woman had a seizure and the girl saved her life, the Inquisitr reported.

[Image via PavleMarjanovic/Shutterstock]

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