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The drowning happened around 12:30 Friday afternoon at an apartment building near White and Florinda in Hanford. Investigators found the siblings unresponsive when they arrived on scene.
The father did not want to talk on camera but Action News reporter Tommy Tran had a lengthy conversation with him about what happened. He told Action News his two kids were playing in the pool and that his wife left to change her clothes for just a couple of minutes when tragedy struck.
A large circle of dead grass is where a pool once stood. Hanford Police say two children drowned here while playing Friday afternoon. The apartment's landlord removed the doughboy pool after medics rushed the kids to a nearby hospital. The eight and seven year old brother and sister were dead when they got there.
"But they may have, we theorize that they may have been playing with the canvas type of cover and they got entangled in it." said Chief Carlos Mestas.
Chief Carlos Mestas says the mother and her step son ran out to try and help resuscitate the kids sometime around 12:30 in the afternoon. Neighbors also tried to administer CPR to get them breathing again. Joan Mitchell lives next door. She went outside after loud screams woke her up.
"And I looked and there was little kids laying there. Laying down and they were trying to revive, his mother was there trying to get the little girl to breathe you know. I knew right then it was too late. It was too late because they were already starting to turn blue you know." said Mitchell.
The eight year old brother and seven year old sister lived with their parents and older step brother in this four unit apartment building. The father says his wife went in to change her clothes for just a few minutes while the kids stayed in the pool. He says his family is devastated by what happened and so are neighbors.
"These kids they're here all the time and the parents are really good about taking care of their children. And they don't let them out of sight at all you know." said Mitchell.
"You just have to keep warning people. You know you have to keep track of your children. No matter how old they are, always keep track of them." said Mestas.
This is the second drowning in the Central Valley in about a week. Last Friday two Visalia twins drowned in a family pool.
