4-year-old rescued from pool at summer camp in Acton

ACTON, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) – A 4-year-old boy is recovering Wednesday after being pulled from a pool at an unlicensed summer camp in Acton.

The incident occurred around 11:30 a.m. at TeamWorks on Great Road, police say. The camp recently opened for the summer and, according to the Acton Board of Health, was not licensed.

The camp, whose website says they have programs for kids ages 7 to 14, has been around for the last 20 years, each season getting a new license. However, that was not the case this year.

"They'd done some internal work within their building which is part of the camp and it did not get a sign off from fire and building departments," said Acton Health Director Doug Halley. The town could not issue the permit until until camp administrators took those steps.

"Unfortunately they opened the camp this week without that permit," Halley said.

When emergency officials arrived at the camp Wednesday morning, lifeguards were scrambling to save the boy who was unresponsive. Luckily, medical personnel were able to revive him.

FOX25 obtained a copy of the 911 call, in which the caller tells the dispatcher, "we have a kid who's drowning in a pool at 30 Great Road."

Police say he was conscious and crying while being transported to Children's Hospital in Boston.

Halley said the camp has been shut down as of Wednesday.

The TeamWorks camp director would not talk to FOX25 Reporter Joy Lim Nakrin on scene, but a camp spokesperson says they are conducting an internal investigation, and released a statement over the claim that the camp was not licensed.

“Teamworks Acton has operated a summer camp in Acton for the past 20 years. In every year that we have operated the summer camp, the Town Board of Health would verbally advise us that we were authorized and approved to operate, and in every year, the verbal approval was followed up several weeks later, after the summer camp had started, with a written letter of permit. This year was no different. We were verbally advised by the Town Board of Health that we were approved to operate the summer camp on June 11th, 2015, via email by Sheryl Ball from the Town Board of Health. As has been the case in every prior year, we have not yet received the usual follow-up written permit from the Board.  We know of absolutely no reason for the Town Board of Health to suggest that we were not fully licensed to operate the summer camp. We were given the same verbal approval by the Town that we have been given each and every prior year.”

Late Wednesday night, the general manager said the child was in the shallow end of the pool and that the camp thought they were doing everything above board.

Cox Media Group