The owner of water park where an 11-year-old girl drowned to death called a firefighter who lived nearby to find her instead of alerting the emergency services first, an inquest has been told.
Kyra Hill got into difficulty in a designated swimming area at Liquid Leisure near Windsor, Berkshire, in August 2022, while at a birthday party.
She did not return to the changing room, sparking ‘chaos’ as parents and staff started screaming her name across the Total Wipeout-style assault course.
A 17-year-old lifeguard dived in after her at 3.20pm before leaving the water to radio her colleagues.
The park owner Stuart Marston called an off-duty firefighter, who lived nearby and was a divemaster, at 3.44pm around 13 minutes before emergency services were called, Berkshire Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday.
Chris Knight, who previously worked at the park, picked up at around 4.19pm and CCTV showed Mr Knight first entering the water with an oxygen tank at 4.33pm.
He found Kyra at around 5.10pm.
She was then rushed to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, where she was pronounced dead.
Kyra Hill (pictured) got into difficulty in a designated swimming area at Liquid Leisure near Windsor, Berkshire, in August 2022, while at a birthday party
Tearful staff lay flowers after the tragic incident at a water park in Berkshire
As many as 40 people, including members of the public, are believed to have dived into the water at Liquid Leisure, near Datchet, Berkshire, in a frantic rescue mission. (File image of water park)
Asked if he was the most convenient diver for Liquid Leisure to call in response to emergency, he said: ‘I would say I was the only option.’
The diver said he searched two parts of the lake before he was told that CCTV showed her going under at another location.
He said that as far as he was aware no-one had looked at the CCTV by the time he arrived at the park.
Mr Knight emerged from the water with Kyra about 12 minutes after he started looking in the third area.
Describing the final search, the firefighter said: ‘Because everything else had seemed slow, that seemed fast’.
Mr Knight said no divers worked at the park and and he helped staff there ‘very occasionally’.
Finding Kyra would be like looking for a ‘needle in a haystack’ for a surface swimmer diving down, Mr Knight said.
He said: ‘It’s not impossible but they would have been very lucky to have gone to the right spot, to have gone down to that depth with almost zero visibility.’
Kyra did not return to the changing room, sparking ‘chaos’ as parents and staff started screaming her name across the Total Wipeout-style assault course
Police are seen outside Liquid Leisure in Windsor at the time of the incident in 2022
‘I could probably see a metre at most and that’s like seeing a shadow in a metre, rather than seeing in detail,’ he added.
Mr Knight had known Liquid Leisure owner and director Mr Marston for around three decades.
He said he started wakeboarding at Liquid Leisure shortly after it opened and later worked there.
After moving career, Mr Knight continued to work there part-time and said he had never had any concerns about safety at the park.
At the start of Thursday’s hearing, senior coroner Heidi Connor warned that she is ‘not hesitant to up the police presence’ for the inquest.
She said people have a right to give evidence ‘without fears for their safety’ and did not specify what this referred to.
Mrs Connor also reminded those giving evidence to ‘tell the truth’.
Two Thames Valley officers arrived during the close of the morning sitting.
The coroner pointed them out and added: ‘The reason why we stand and bow at inquests – it is not for me, it is not for the court, it is out of respect for Kyra and I must insist that these proceedings remain respectful to Kyra.’
On Tuesday, Mrs Connor told the hearing there were ‘various sharp drops’ of up to 14.7ft within the swimming zone.
The lake was 8.8ft deep where Kyra was seen going under, a report carried out after the incident found.
However, the only signs relating to depth in the designated swimming zone said ‘danger shallow water’, the hearing was told.
The coroner asked Liquid Leisure’s owner and director: ‘Do you think it’s reasonable for a parent seeing that sign to think all of the water is shallow?’
Mr Marston said: ‘You could interpret it in different ways but, yes, you could interpret it that way.’
Shallow water signs were erected following a civil claim after someone hit the bottom with their knee, he added.
‘We were told to put danger shallow water signs around the facility so people didn’t jump in,’ he said.
The park owner Stuart Marston called an off-duty firefighter, who lived nearby and was a divemaster, at 3.44pm around 13 minutes before emergency services were called,
‘It’s very difficult, in hindsight now… if there was a deep water sign there and also shallow water (signs), it would be conflicting.’
Mr Marston initially told the inquest he believed ‘to the best of my knowledge’ that the depth of the water in the beach area had been measured before Kyra’s death.
Rachel Marcus, representing the Hill family, put to him that they had not seen any documentation stating it had.
Mr Marston responded: ‘I would say then if you haven’t seen anything then it hasn’t been tested.
‘Tested in the way of the robot coming in and doing the underground stuff, then, no, we haven’t done any testing on the swimming area.’
People over six years old were not required to wear life jackets at the park, provided they were competent swimmers and had a reasonable level of fitness and ability.
It was a requirement to sign a waiver confirming this, the inquest heard.
CCTV of the incident showed around 42 people in the water and others on the beach, the coroner said.
Floral tributes left at the water park in Berkshire for Kyra following the tragedy
One lifeguard was overseeing the area and Mrs Connor put it to Mr Marston that Liquid Leisure’s policy required at least one lifeguard per 30 participants.
He said lifeguards at nearby activities, in the same lake as the beach area, would occasionally check from their stations.
‘Others do look around because it’s never at full capacity on all of the activities,’ he added.
The director later accepted that more lifeguards should have been on duty.
The beach starts as sand but becomes ‘silt and mud’ further out, with some witnesses describing it as ‘squishy’ at the bottom, the coroner said.
She suggested this could decrease water visibility.
There were also no warnings about the texture of the bottom or the visibility, the inquest heard.
The family’s lawyer also put to Mr Marston that the muddy bottom could be difficult to push off from.
Mr Marston replied: ‘I’ve never had a problem, no one has ever said it would be hard to push off of.’
The point at which sand turned to mud would vary through the year but this was not monitored, he added.
The coroner said: ‘This inquest is going to be very difficult, predominately for Kyra’s family, I’m very much aware of that.’
She added it will not be forgotten ‘that this is about your Kyra, an 11-year-old girl who supported Manchester United and who dreamt of a career in law’.
The hearing was previously told a post-mortem examination gave the cause of her death as drowning.
The inquest continues.
