Two Florida Children Drown After Being Left Unattended In Pool

Two children in Florida died Tuesday following a suspected drowning incident at a home.

The siblings, aged 7 and 9, were visiting the home in the Pinecrest Lakes community of Jensen Beach, Martin County, with a parent Friday when the incident occurred. The parent had taken the kids to the home to visit the owners.

The drowning occurred just after 5 p.m. ET. The children got into the pool with the permission of the parent, who gave them a trimix scuba tank. They weren’t being supervised by an adult when they were in the pool, WPTV reported, citing Martin County Sheriff’s office.

The adults at the house told investigators they walked away to mind other business after the children got into the pool. When an adult returned after a short amount of time, they found both the children at the bottom of the pool. The tank was also found next to them, the outlet reported.

No information regarding the identity of the victims or their parents have been released.

The adults immediately pulled the children out of the pool and began performing CPR on them before rushing them to a hospital, ABC-affiliated WFTS reported. The kids died at the hospital on Tuesday.

The parent of the children told the detectives the children were skilled in swimming and scuba diving. Authorities said the exact cause of death will be revealed after the autopsy, and added they were investigating whether the drowning was caused by the helium component that the tank contained.

"It's looking like the children were not breathing the oxygen they believe they were breathing. It looks like they were indeed breathing helium. With helium, they would have the sense that they were actually breathing oxygen, so they would feel like they're breathing normally," WPTV reported, citing Major John Budensiek with the Martin County Sheriff's Office. "They wouldn't get the feeling that they would need to take a breath. So, they would have breathed helium, and because there is no oxygen in helium, ended up in the state that they were in."

Trimix scuba diving tanks contain a combination of three gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, and helium. The tanks are only used for diving into intense depths ranging from 197 to 213 feet.