With more people are flocking to area rivers and lakes early in the swimming season, the D.C. region is seeing an “unusual” number of drownings and near drownings.
A man in his 20s who had been swimming with a companion in Howard Duckett Reservoir is the latest drowning victim.
Pete Piringer, spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, said the man’s body was quickly recovered from the Maryland reservoir.
“We think it is a bit unusual, certainly this early in the season, to have so many drownings and near drownings,” Piringer said.
“I think there is a lot of disruption in our normal routine,” he said. More people in recent months have been home looking for things to do as the region deals with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, D.C. Fire and EMS reported that a swimmer and fisherman went missing in the Potomac River north of Key Bridge. One body was recovered last weekend near Fletcher’s Boat House.
On June 1, Montgomery County rescue personnel recovered the body of a young man in the Potomac River near Great Falls. He had entered the water from Sandy Landing on the Virginia side.
A young man drowned in Goose Creek near Leesburg, Virginia, on June 4, InsideNova reported.
There have been two near-drownings of children in recent days in Gaithersburg, Maryland. A 12-year-old child who has autism was rescued by an off-duty firefighter in Clopper Lake on June 4, and bystanders pulled a small child from the man-made lake at Rio Washingtonian Center.
Piringer said an man also was rescued when he slipped into the water at Bohrer Park in Gaithersburg a few nights ago.
