Some stories from the Seagoville news archives are worth revisiting just because of how vividly they capture a single strange morning. This week’s Flashback takes us back to April 9, 2020, when a routine hobby outing at C.O. Bruce Central Park turned into a full emergency response.
According to a news release issued by the City of Seagoville that day, Seagoville 9 1 1 received a call reporting that an elderly man might be drowning in the pond at Central Park. The Seagoville Fire Department and Police Department were both dispatched immediately.
When First Responders arrived, they found a man clinging to the pond’s center fountain, struggling to stay afloat and unable to make it back to shore on his own.
Firefighters trained in Swift Water Rescue were able to retrieve him safely. The release identified him as a 67 year old Mesquite resident who had been operating motorized radio controlled watercraft in the pond. One of his boats became entangled in the underwater support cables for the fountain and began to sink. In an effort to recover it, he swam toward the middle of the pond and became physically overwhelmed.
The incident also served as a reminder of Seagoville’s city ordinances governing the park. Under Seagoville City Ordinance Article 15.02, Section 15.02.071, Prohibited Acts, several activities are explicitly banned in the Central Park pond. Subsection 8 prohibits swimming, bathing, wading in, or polluting the water in any fountain, pond, lake, or stream within the city. Subsection 23 prohibits operating any engine powered model aircraft, model watercraft, or model land vehicle except in designated areas.
As the release noted, these ordinances exist to ensure the safety of citizens enjoying the park, a point underscored by just how quickly an afternoon hobby turned into a rescue operation that morning.
The man was safely retrieved with no further details on injuries released at the time. The release credited the Seagoville Fire Department’s Swift Water Rescue trained personnel for the successful recovery.
It is a reminder that even a calm, ordinary park pond can turn dangerous fast, and why those longstanding ordinances remain on the books today.
This Flashback is based on an official City of Seagoville news release dated April 9, 2020, provided to Shop in Seagoville.
