Three-year-old drowns in pond

The Daily Inter Lake

A 3-year-old girl drowned Friday in a pond north of Ferndale.

Despite lengthy resuscitation efforts, Opal Black was pronounced dead at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Sheriff Jim Dupont said the child was playing outside at about 12:30 p.m. while her mother was on the phone, talking to a neighbor. Minutes later, the neighbor heard the mother screaming outside and rushed to the pond, near 3265 Montana 83.

The neighbor, Tom Clark, 53, waded into waist-deep water to pick up the girl.

"He started CPR as he was dragging her into the house," Dupont said. "He did a great job. He did everything he could to try to help her."

Jody Freund, district law-enforcement officer with the Swan Lake Ranger Station with the U.S. Forest Service, happened to be five or six minutes away from the residence and heard the sheriff's office's call on his radio.

When he arrived, Black appeared lifeless.

"She wasn't breathing. She didn't have a pulse," Freund said. He took over CPR from Clark and continued it for about 15 minutes, until Bigfork ambulance arrived to take the girl to the hospital, continuing CPR. ALERT helicopter was not available.

Dupont said the girl was apparently in the water for about 10 minutes.

"She was out playing in the yard. One minute she was there, the next minute she was not," he said.

The incident was not one of negligence, he said.

"It's just tragic."