Warmer weather and playing in the water go hand-in-hand, but so do water-related deaths.
"We don't like going out to people drowning,” said Community Risk Prevention Officer Ben Shearer. “It's never a good day for us, its never a good day for families."
Shearer said the Tri-Cities area has multiple water-related deaths each year, and he said most are preventable tragedies with a few things in common.
Most victims weren’t wearing life jackets.
Most victims didn’t plan against mistakes the cold water.
"They didn't know the area they were in,” he said. “They weren’t looking around to see if there was maybe a log in the water. Or spending too much time in the water."