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Ottawa firefighters are planning to re-evaluate a Canada Day game played on Petrie Island after it was learned that water used to spray children was pumped from the Ottawa River beach, which was closed to swimmers.
The popular family event, organized by volunteer firefighters, is held every year, but this year, high bacterial levels in the river Monday kept all four beaches on the river closed on Canada Day. Now, health warnings are prompting the public to watch children for symptoms of E. coli infection.
After the fire department was contacted by media about concerns about the children playing under the spray, firefighters brought in trucks carrying municipal water.
Irvin Sunstrum, sector chief for Ottawa Fire Services, said firefighters did not realize the beach was closed.
Chief Sunstrum said, “We’ve always pumped the water from the river and we just set up like we always do … and as soon as it was brought to our attention, that there was a problem, we immediately shut it down and started trucking water from the municipal system.”
Chief Sunstrum said the children were enjoying “water ball,” in which they dress up as firefighters and use hoses with small nozzles to shoot water at a ball that moves along a wire overhead.
He said the crew set up around 11 a.m. and switched to the municipal system around 2 p.m. He said the water that was pumped was not surface water—which would likely have the highest concentration of bacteria
Dr. Nadine Sicard, the city’s associate medical officer of health, says she has only received one call from a concerned parent who wanted information regarding symptoms.
She said in this case the risk would be low because the children’s exposure was “very small. The way the spraying was done, is not exactly like swimming in the water,” said Dr. Sicard. “So unless someone is trying to swallow the water from the hose, it is not likely there would be large amount of water that would be swallowed.”
(C) Ottawa Citizen