Anne Arundel County Firefighter Advises Swimmers To Be Cautious

EDGEWATER, MD -- Following the drowning of a young man in Edgewater's Warehouse Creek recently, Anne Arundel County emergency responders are warning everyone to be more careful.

The county has 520 miles of shoreline, but the Edgewater incident is the first open-water drowning death of 2019. The Warehouse Creek drowning involved a man in his 20s who jumped into the water off a pier located behind a private home on Slama Road, Patch reported. According to WBAL-TV, the man's coworkers watched him jump in, but no one saw him resurface.

While coworkers struggled to find the man, emergency workers raced to the scene. When firefighters arrived, they found individuals holding the man's head above water. However, the man did not survive the incident.

Area residents told WBAL-TV that Warehouse Creek has swift currents and limited visibility, a dangerous combination.

"I would say, right at dusk, it would be quite dangerous to be swimming in these waters just because of the visibility," resident Jerry Hoot told WBAL-TV. "The water visibility here is probably, right now, about 6 inches."

Lt. Erik Kornmeyer with the Anne Arundel County Fire Department said the drowning accident serves as a "reminder" to others.

"With over 520 miles of shoreline, we remind all of our citizens and visitors to make sure that you don't jump into water that you can't see the bottom of because you don't know how shallow or deep it is, and it can be very dangerous," he told WBAL-TV.