2 year old Child Dies after falling into Septic Tank

 

Burlington, WA: On April 6th, 2015, the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports that a 2-year old was missing in the area of Sanchez lane just outside the City of Burlington, WA.  Officers with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office responded and after a search of the area, found  2-year old, Orion Fenstra,  dead after an apparent fall into a septic tank on the  property his parents were visiting.

While reviewing the Police scanner radio logs via a common creative license from www.Broadcastify.com from the incident, responding deputies almost  immediately requested assistance from the City of Burlington Police Department. They also responded to the area for an agency assist,   to search for the child.   Here is a condensed timeline of the incident. Please note some items were not included, including names and non related radio traffic.

April 6th, 2015. Skagit 9-1-1 Radio Traffic of Missing Child Incident: 

9:51 AM: Union 50 notified of a Missing Person Detail. Sunni Street and Gardner. 2-year old missing within last 10 minutes. Wearing blue jeans, black shoes, black jacket with blue on it and a windbreaker.

9:51: U-50 en route (U stands for Union, Skagit County Sheriff Call Sign)

9:52: U-52 en route

9:53: U-66 en route

9:53: U-50 Requests that Burlington officers are notified as the location is right at city limits, see if they can come out and help.

9:53: U-57: Clears Separate incident

9:53: U-16: En Route-Requests U-33 Notified

9:53: Dispatch notifies Burlington PD

9:54: Henry 4 (Burlington PD) en route

9:55: U-73 en route, after clearing a car accident scene

9:55: Cascade notifies Henry 4 that the County is officially requesting assistance.

9:55: Henry 4 and Henry 13 en route

9:57: Unit moving towards Sanchez Lane (unknown unit number)

9:58: U-57 Arrived in area

9:58: U-55 Checking Lafayette Road by old Church

9:58: U-61 Starting at Boat Launch

9:59: U-50 states multiple people are on scene looking for child.

10:00: U-50 states he has an open hole, needs U-16 to bring a pole, something to search down a hole. An open hole that needs searched

10:00: U-16 asks U-229 if able to respond

10:00: U-13 offers to swing by shop from 20/I-5 to get pike pole

10:03: Henry 4 Arrives

10:03: U-16 asks for update on the hole

10:03: U-50 states he doesn’t want to put too much out over the air, but has concerns over a septic tank on scene. Asks U-16 if they should start a private septic tank co in case they need to pump it out.

10:03: U-16 requests dispatch to see if they can work on a septic company to respond. States they will try and search as quick as they can with a pike pole.

10:04: County Requests info from Burlington on Thermal Image Camera

10:04: Henry 13 Arrives in Area, asked by Henry 4 to check Gardner S of Incident

10:05:  U-57 requests that City of Burlington be contacted about Pumper to pump tank.

10:06: 611 and City of Burlington Fire Department requested to assist with possible septic tank rescue

10:06: Henry 4 requests Henry 26 to respond

10:07 Engine 611 en route

 

10:08: Engine 1811 en route

10:08: U-16 requests County be checked for Pumper truck if City isn’t available.

10:09: U-16 requests Search and Rescue Track Dog to scene

10:12: Cascade tells U-57 that U-33 is working on K-9. Public Works has right equipment to pump septic, is making phone contact with deputy on scene.

10:13: Henry 26 arrives in area

10:14:  U-13 asks dispatch to please send aid. Dispatch Confirms with U-13.

10:15: Medic 4 toned for a medical response at Gardner and Sanchez

10:15: Med 4 en route

10:15: Request for Support officer

10:17: Burlington Units Clear Scene

10:17: U-16 asks dispatch to confirm aid is en route

10:17 Med 4 asks for updates from deputies on patient

10:17: Dispatch tells M-4 that  2 year old was located, aid requested priority, no additional information available.

10:22: Med 4 arrives

10:23: Support officer ETA requested,

10:23: Med 4 requests Med 1 to respond to assist.

10:23: U-16 requests ETA on Support officer. Screams heard in background audio.

10:23: MSO1 en route, Support officer confirmed en route.

10:26: M-4 en route to Skagit Valley Hospital-Priority

10:31: U-61 en route to Skagit Valley Hospital with child’s father and brother.

A witness we talked to, stated he was there when the child went missing and started the initial search for the child .   He states the media has the story wrong and that  nobody had a clue something like this was even a possibility.

He said the parents were there moving stuff into a storage shed and had set the child down to play in the grass while they loaded stuff into the shed.  Within minutes they noticed the child had disappeared. They immediately started to look for the child. Everyone was walking right by the man hole because the lid was still on it. They never imagined he could have fallen into the hole.  He said the area they were loading items into the storage shed was no more than fifteen (15) feet from the area where the hole was found.  After about ten minutes and involving other people in the area to try and look for the child, the police were called because the child could not be located.

He also said the septic tank was never being worked on by the caretaker of the property. He said the tank was covered with a plastic cover and that the lid appears to have flipped over when it was stepped on by Orion, causing him to fall into the tank.

He said The parents are great people and this tragic accident could have happened to anyone. Nobody is at fault.

 

Oiginal Story: Burlington, WA:   Police and Firefighters responded to Sanchez Lane in Burlington around 10 this morning for reports of a missing 2-year old child.

Officers found the missing child in a septic tank after searching. Apparently the septic tank lid  had been unsecured, and someone on the scene secured it at some point. Deputies removed the lid and found the child inside.

Firefighters and EMS responded to the scene but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

Additional details were not available at this time.  They will be updated as they become available.