HOUSTON – A lazy river pool at what’s now the DoubleTree by Hilton off the Northwest Freeway was built in 2018, according to City of Houston records, but the plans approved by the City lacked a major component: the system that made it function as a lazy river.
“We approved the construction plans but we didn’t approve all the items that were actually constructed on site,” Houston Health Department inspector Curtis Cagle told only KPRC 2 a day after he made the discovery.
Cagle returned to the pool on Tuesday after an initial inspection on Monday closed the pool until further notice. He said the city learned additional history about the facility which prompted a follow-up inspection.
On Saturday, 8-year-old Aliyah Jaico was enjoying a day of swimming with her family when she was violently sucked into an opening in the pool, reported missing, and found dead 13 hours later about 20 feet inside a pipe. Her body was described as contorted when rescuers found her.
In total, the pool has six pumps, Cagle said. Two of them are intended to circulate the water, keeping it filtered and disinfected.
But the lazy river, in the courtyard of the hotel, is powered by four additional pumps, Cagle said. Each of the four corners of the lazy river have three large pipe openings in the wall which are connected to the pumps on the pool deck.
Two of the pipes are meant for suction while one of the pipes functions as the return, pushing water, which makes the water flow as a lazy river, he said.
But those components of the lazy river system - the large pipe openings and the pumps - were not part of the approved construction plans and they had not been inspected before Jaico’s tragic death, Cagle said.
“The plans were not approved to have those pumps on the deck that run the lazy river feature,” he said. “Those plans did not include the openings on the side of the wall, the large openings, with that pump.”
It’s believed that Jaico was sucked into one of those openings, according to a wrongful death lawsuit her family filed Monday.
“We are also concerned about large openings in the wall of a pool. We don’t allow those because they create a potential hazard,” Cagle said.
After the 2018 remodel that didn’t follow construction plans, the hotel never scheduled a pre-opening inspection, which is a permit requirement, Cagle said. It’s believed the lazy river has been operating ever since.
“They were not approved to open after the remodel by the city,” Cagle said.
His inspection also revealed the lazy river water was six inches deeper than what the city had approved.
Under federal law, an approved drain cover or grate is required anywhere a pool has suction, but during Cagle’s visit on Tuesday, the hotel manager and maintenance could not provide any documentation showing compliance.
“This is, of course, what we don’t ever want to happen. And that’s why we conduct submersion inspections so that we can learn and that we can document and we can help prevent tragedies,” Cagle said.
A spokesperson for the law firm representing the hotel would not answer questions about compliance with City code.
According to the city’s inspection report, Jaico may have been sucked into the lazy river pipe meant to push water, which is shown in photos and from SKY 2 without any type of cover.
It’s still unclear if there was any sort of malfunction with the pump or the direction in which the water was flowing.
The city conducts routine inspections of commercial pools, but since those inspections happen when the pool is in operation, those inspectors are working under the assumption that plans and construction have already been approved, the Health Department said.