A near-drowning at an apartment pool on Edgar Park Avenue in Northeast El Paso left one person with life-threatening injuries Wednesday night, according to El Paso police. The incident happened near Hercules Avenue and US 54, and the victim was rushed to a hospital for treatment.
As reported by KVIA, ABC-7 saw the apartment pool taped off at the scene, and officials said the area was cleared by 8:30 p.m. The El Paso Fire Department dispatched its FireSTAR helicopter to the scene, a joint air medical partnership with Air Methods that lets flight paramedics deliver hospital-level critical trauma care directly at emergency scenes, according to El Paso Community College.
A Second Airlift From an El Paso Pool in Weeks
This is not the first time this summer that FireSTAR has been called to a residential pool emergency in El Paso. On July 13, the helicopter airlifted another victim with life-threatening injuries following a near-drowning on Preview Place in East El Paso, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage. Both incidents involved critical air medical transport following residential pool submersions during the summer.
The city's fire department maintains substantial ground and air resources for exactly this kind of emergency. The El Paso Fire Department staffs 27 full-time Mobile Intensive Care Unit ambulances and keeps Advanced Life Support paramedic staffing on 65% of its active fire apparatuses, per the City of El Paso. Edgar Park Avenue sits in the Sunrise Acres neighborhood just east of US 54, near Nations Tobin Recreation Center and Park Elementary School, an area dense with multi-family apartment complexes, as described by the Texas Ally Real Estate Group.
What State Law Requires of Apartment Pools
Texas law sets specific safety standards for exactly the kind of complex where Wednesday's near-drowning happened. Under Chapter 757 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, multi-unit apartment complexes are required to enclose pool yards with non-climbable barriers at least 48 inches tall, fitted with self-closing and self-latching gates. It remains unknown whether police or code compliance inspectors have identified any barrier or latch violations at the Edgar Park Avenue pool, and that question has not yet been resolved.
The victim's age and current medical condition also remain undisclosed. Nonfatal drownings carry serious risks even when a victim survives the initial submersion. Nearly 40% of nonfatal drowning incidents treated in hospital emergency departments require hospitalization or specialized transfer, compared to just 10% for all other unintentional injuries, according to the CDC. For every child who dies from drowning nationally, roughly seven to eight others receive emergency department care for nonfatal drowning injuries, the same CDC data shows.
A Pattern of Water Emergencies Across the City
Wednesday's incident adds to a string of water-related emergencies El Paso has seen this year. In March, police launched an investigation after a 54-year-old woman died in a reported drowning at a West El Paso hair salon and day spa, as Hoodline reported at the time. In December 2025, a two-year-old was airlifted following a water rescue in East El Paso.
Statewide, the toll has been significant. As of August 7, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services had recorded 57 fatal child drownings across Texas during 2026. Local advocates have worked for two decades to address this danger: the Drowning Prevention Coalition of El Paso was established following the August 2006 drowning death of four-year-old Christian Castle, and it continues to organize regional water safety campaigns and lifeguard competitions to promote water vigilance during peak summer months.
