MARTINS FERRY — Mayor John Davies said a woman died Saturday after she experienced what appeared to be a medical emergency at the city pool.

“We’re not exactly sure what happened,” Davies said via phone on Monday.

According to Davies, it “looked like the young lady had an episode” while walking in water that was about 3 feet deep. Davies said video cameras at the City Park recorded her coming across the water when “all at once” she appeared to be in distress and “within seconds she was face down.”

Davies said a couple of other pool patrons who were nearby grabbed her and pulled her out of the water. At that point, CPR was performed on the victim.

“Unfortunately, the young lady succumbed,” he said, noting that to his knowledge, no cause of death had been established as of Monday.

Davies estimated that it took about a minute for bystanders to remove the woman from the water. He said CPR was started “directly after that, but sometimes it’s not meant to be.”

According to Davies, several people with extensive experience performing and even teaching CPR happened to be at the pool at the time. He said the primary individual to perform CPR on the victim and to direct others as they helped is a CPR instructor.

Davies said the incident occurred at about 6:12 p.m. Saturday and that the first emergency medical responder to arrive was on scene at 6:15 p.m.

When an ambulance from Bridgeport EMS arrived, that crew took over the rescue efforts and transported the woman to WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Davies acknowledged that Martins Ferry EMS is experiencing a staffing shortage, running with the help of both full- and part-time employees. He said many of those folks also work for surrounding communities’ safety forces as well, “trying to fill the gap.”

“We have a shortage of staff the same as everybody else has,” he said. That’s why we have mutual aid. Only Cumberland Trail, Shadyside (OR&W Fire District) and Neffs, I think, have no shortage because they have fire and EMS combined, so it’s easier to staff full time. We have a couple open shifts or one person on a shift.”

He said the city’s EMS coordinator notifies Bridgeport EMS when the city expects to be shorthanded. He noted that summer vacations make it even more difficult to fully staff the emergency medical service.

According to Davies, the city’s EMS levy generates about $230,000 annually, but he said it costs $1 million a year to run the department. A new class of emergency medical propviders is expected to graduate in September, and Davies said he has asked city council to consider offering a higher pay rate in an effort to attract some of them to the city’s ranks.

“Anybody who has a solution to that problem, call me and tell me what it is,” he added.

The incident Saturday occurred during a free swim offered in celebration of the Independence Day weekend. Davies said there were a lot of people in and around the pool.

“You have people jumping in the water, jumping under the water — it’s hard to identify if somebody jumped or fell,” he added. “The lifeguards were scanning the water constantly.”

Davies noted that some “facebook warriors” had remarked that the lifeguards were too young. He insisted, though, that “they did their job.”

“I don’t care if you’re a lifeguard or whatever, I like to see the person with the most experience working on the patient,” he added. “I think a CPR instructor is probably more qualified than a lot of people who work at pools.

“It was an unfortunate incident, but fortunately even our younger lifeguards, they realized … that the lady who started to perform CPR knew what she was doing, and you could tell. She helped get her out of the water and started CPR. … She was very good at what she did.”

Davies also noted that the incident was “traumatic for everybody” involved and for those who witnessed it.

Belmont County Coroner Dr. Amanda Fisher had little knowledge of the case.

“Our office wasn’t notified at all until today (Monday) when (Police) Chief (Jerry) Murphy reached out to us to potentially get medical records for the deceased,” she said.

Because the victim was transported to Wheeling Hospital without being pronounced deceased in Martins Ferry, Fisher said the death is not being handled by the Belmont County Coroner’s Office.

The Martins Ferry Police Department announced on social media that the pool was closed

Sunday out of respect for the victim and her family. The woman’s identity has not been released. The pool reopened Monday.