12-year-old boy dies after being pulled from Calgary lake

A child is in critical condition at a Calgary hospital after being pulled from a city lake.

A young boy who was pulled from Mahogany Lake on Sunday has died, CTV News has learned.

A family spokesperson and the family’s landlord both say the 12-year-old boy passed away in hospital.

Emergency crews were called to the lake at 7:15 p.m. for reports a youth may have drowned.

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Witnesses told firefighters the youth had been playing basketball before he jumped off the dock and into the lake.

The family recently moved to Canada from Ghana in search of a better life, according to those that know them.

They have only been in Calgary since the end of March.

The family spokesperson says the young boy was making new friends and did not know how to swim.

The Calgary Fire Department’s (CFD) aquatic rescue team searched the lake with a rescue boat and a dive team.

“Our first arriving water rescue crew put two rescuers in the water, who then started the first stages of a search,” said Alex Kwan, public information officer with the CFD.

The Calgary Police Service’s HAWCS helicopter was used to assist search efforts.

Officials say the water was cold and visibility was poor.

Kwan says the water temperature is around 10 C this time of year.

“The air surface temperature is not the same as the water temperature,” he said, adding that any water less than 20 C is going to be cold.

“By comparison, when you look at a swimming pool, most of them are set at 26 to 28 C,” Kwan said.

“Our crews were able to rescue and pull the child from about a depth of six metres – or 20 feet – out of the water into a waiting ambulance. We sent two firefighters with the ambulance to assist.”

The 12-year-old boy was taken to hospital in critical, life-threatening condition. He later died.

‘A shared responsibility’

The Lifesaving Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories says it’s aware of two drownings so far this year.

“Safety is a shared responsibility, and it’s on all of us to make sure that we prevent water-related injury and drownings,” said Madison Lalonde, interim managing director. “Drowning can happen in seconds and is often silent.”

Lalonde says everyone should wear a life jacket when they are in any body of water in Alberta.

“Your life jacket works just like a seatbelt. It will not work if it’s not on,” she said.

Previous drownings last summer

Last August, two 20-year-old men drowned at Mahogany Lake — a tragedy that rocked the community.

They were identified by friends and family as Caelan Escalante and Yagazie Ike-Peters, remembered as faith-driven, community-focused young men.

In the wake of that incident, a petition calling for lifeguards at Calgary’s community lakes gathered several thousand signatures.

This latest drowning is the fourth at Mahogany Lake since 2021.

Mahogany resident Bianca Gallant has lived in the community for a little more than a year.

She says she’d like to see the lake enforce stricter supervision rules for anyone under the age of 16.

“If they would raise the age of kids that can access it without supervision, I feel like it would be better for everybody,” she said.

“It’s pretty scary when it’s supposed to be a fun place. The beach was actually one of the things that made me want to move here, so my kids would have that beach area and the parks in there, and it’s fenced in and it seems safe – but clearly there’s some safety issues that still need to be worked out.”