Cold water kills: Cooling down in a reservoir could be a fatal mistake

But now that summer is fast approaching West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and Yorkshire Water want to make the public aware of the serious dangers of open water and the depths.

‘Cold Water Kills’ is the slogan for a water safety awareness campaign - and fire chiefs are determined to get the message across this year to stop a simple outdoor swim turning into a terrible tragedy.

Ian Bitcon, Area Manager for West Yorkshire Fire Service, said: “We are the only land locked county that appears in the top 10 of places that have over 30 open water related deaths over a three year period and we find those figures really shocking.

“Forty four per cent of people who actually went into the water and drowned didn’t do it intentionally. The point we are trying to make is when you actually go into the water it can affect you very quickly.”

The temperature of water in reservoirs is as low as 12 degrees C and can drop your body temperature very quickly resulting in delayed body response times and, in extreme cases, death.

“If you happen to see someone in the water in difficulty then the thing to do is dial 999 and not to go into the water yourself,” Mr Bitcon continued.

“We have got specialist equipment that we use and that is on all our front line appliances so this enables every single crew in West Yorkshire to carry out some form of water rescue.

“We have also got swift water rescue crews who are trained to a higher level and have equipment to a higher standard. As we are able to supply some sort of resource very quickly our response time to water rescues are the same as any other incident.”

Yorkshire Water is in charge of the reservoirs around the county and is supporting the campaign with the fire service.

The company has been putting up warning posters and signs around reservoirs with the campaign’s Cold Water Kills slogan to raise awareness.

Tom Underwood, of Yorkshire Water, said: “We were doing demonstrations at Ogden reservoir in Halifax; Thornes Park and the River Aire to support West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and to raise awareness particularly among young people of the unseen and deadly dangers of swimming in reservoirs.

“It may seem a reasonably safe thing to do but actually reservoirs are dangerous and it can quickly turn into a life threatening situation if someone does go for a swim in them.

“Temperature in reservoirs are low and can cause the body to go into cold water shock which can cause death along with hypothermia and drowning.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service has released statistics which show there have been 33 water based fatalities in the last three years.