Belle Isle is a popular place for swimmers on the James River in the summer months.

If you can swim, it’s hard to drown in the James River in Richmond right now. Take a look at the handy RichmondOutside info center (top left of the home page). The James is measuring 3.76 feet at the Westham Gauge. But if you can’t swim and you throw alcohol into the mix, all bets are off. That seems to be the toxic mix that led to the death of a 19-year-old this past weekend on the river at Belle Isle.

According to the T-D article by Bill Lukitsch: The death is the second recorded recovery of a body from the James River by Richmond firefighters this year… In 2017, the department has responded to 48 river-related calls and rescued 29 people.

Read the T-D coverage here.