Wawayanda boy airlifted after near-drowning, safety warning for Orange County families

A 5-year-old boy was airlifted to Westchester Medical Center after a near-drowning at a home on Ridgebury Road in Wawayanda, a frightening call that unfolded just after 5 p.m. Sunday evening. Family members and friends started CPR before first responders arrived, and the child was conscious and alert by the time crews reached the scene.

Emergency crews took the boy to the helicopter landing zone at the New Hampton Fire Department before he was flown for further evaluation. Goshen officers, Wawayanda EMS, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and other mutual aid agencies responded to the scene. His condition was not known at the time of the report.

The rescue landed hard in a county that has been seeing too many water emergencies. The Orange County Firefighters Association says there were 89 drowning incidents in Orange County in 2024, including 36 involving children ages 0-4 and 27 involving adults over 50. Most of those incidents happened at backyard pools, spas or community pools, the association said, a reminder that family gatherings and summer play can turn dangerous in seconds.

Safety officials say the lesson for Orange County parents is straightforward: do not let pool supervision drift. Children should be watched closely at all times, taught to ask permission before entering the water and enrolled in swimming lessons as part of a broader safety plan. State health guidance says every private pool should be surrounded by a four-sided fence, and that pool alarms and covers are not substitutes for barriers and active supervision.

The risks are not limited to deep water. The Orange County Firefighters Association warns that children can drown in less than 2 inches of water. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children ages 5-14, and that more children ages 1-4 die from drowning than from any other cause of death. New York State health officials say children and teens are at greatest risk, with hundreds of people in the state drowning or being hospitalized for severe injuries each year.

The Wawayanda rescue also follows another pool emergency in Highland Mills about a month earlier, when a 5-year-old boy was found face down in a neighbor’s pool and flown to Westchester Medical Center in critical condition. In western Orange County, where Wawayanda’s population was estimated at 7,687 in 2024, the pattern has made water safety feel less like seasonal advice and more like an urgent family precaution.