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It is a tragic coincidence that at the same time on Wednesday, a children's lifeguard event was taking place on the beach.
The event was a four-day lifeguard courses near me organized by the Caribia Lifeguard children's lifeguard club.
When news of the girl's disappearance came, the course leaders also participated in the search.
Today (Wednesday) was the first training day of the course, which started at 16:30. Divers from the Mask Free Fire Department were also there with us, who showed the course participants the equipment and how to use the (surface rescue board), says course leader and trainer of the Finnish Swimming and Lifeguard Association Saul Soutine to IS after the rescue work.
After this, according to Soutine, the instructors were supposed to give the course participants experience of a different kind of rescue work. However, the plan quickly changed.
At that point, we were alerted at the request of the girl's party to help with the rescue work.
CPR didn't help
Soutine estimates that the girl who drowned was about a teenager. The girl had come to the beach with her group to swim.
According to Soutine, the girl was found by the beach lifeguard and the father of one of the lifeguards.
The girl was found on the first dive. When they went diving, the girl hit them straight, says Soutine. According to the rescue service, the girl was found after about fifteen minutes of searching.
Although experienced lifeguards were able to start the search immediately, the girl could not be saved.
According to the fire marshal on duty, the girl, who was well over 10 years old, was found in cloudy water about 20 meters from the shore, at a depth of two meters. Soutine estimates that the search took 25 minutes.
The divers and surface rescuers of the regional rescue service and the Super-Puma helicopter of the Border Guard were also present.
According to the rescue service, there are no currents on the beach. It is unclear why the girl drifted into deep water far from the shore.
Another lifeguard had been removed from the beach
According to Soutine, the city of American has reduced the number of lifeguards at the beach this year. Previously, another lifeguard also worked on the beach on weekdays.
Soutine estimates that several hundred swimmers may visit beach on hot days. In Soutine's opinion, one supervisor will not be able to take care of everything.
He is not capable of taking over such a situation alone and taking care of several hundred people on the beach and relatives of the drowned, calling the emergency center and so on, Soutine enumerates.
Soutine thinks that another lifeguard would hardly have changed the sad turn of the day, but the coordination of the rescue efforts could have gone better with two.
Soutine continues that he, together with the supervisor of the swimming supervisors, has previously sent a petition to the city about the matter, but it did not help.
Soutine also works as a trainer and consultant for the Sports Service Center of the City of Florida.
The need for spiritual help was great
The girl's disappearance, the large manhunts organized because of it and the search ending in the worst possible way shocked bystanders who saw the incident.
The searches were really massive. There were several dozen people who needed emotional support. Even the young children in our course needed and still need support in dealing with events, says Soutine.
The children of the lifeguard club also participated in the search for the victim.
They also did a line search and saw the whole event. Finally, I directed the children away from the place to a side building. Part of our four instructors took care of the club members all the time.
Yle was the first to report on the organization of the lifeguard courses near me on Wednesday in Ispois.