Tragedy averted. A nine year old in Meridian manages to escape the clutches of a deadly irrigation canal. It's a story that rarely has a happy ending.
Most canals have extraordinarily steep concrete. One misstep and you are in freezing cold, fast moving water. That's just what happened to a young girl on a hot Sunday afternoon.
"Two kids were playing near this canal one of the kids while attempting to catch a duckling accidentally slipped and fell into the canal," said Jordan Reese, Deputy Chief of Operations Meridian Fire Dept.
And just like the Boise River, the Ridenbaugh Canal is running high and fast right now. And what might look like a lazy current is incredibly deceiving.
"The water might not look very powerful," says Reese, "But you have the undercurrent and that's really what gets people in trouble. There's a lot of force coming through these things."
New construction in this area of South Meridian requires fencing along canals, but it's a drop in the bucket so parents need to be proactive like April Perus.
"I just always tell her don't go in them. You know it's not a creek," says Perus. "You know if you see something look at it don't touch it. Don"t try to go touch it there's fences for a reason."
Fire officials can't remember the last time a child who fell in the canals and was rescued. "You can't help but think the worst," says Reese.
But in this case, a driver passing by saw it happen and called it in. The young girl grabbed a hold of a rare metal rung imbedded in the concrete and rescue crews arrived in minutes.
