27-year-old hair stylist one of the two likely drowning on the lake during the weekend of heat wave

Zahrie Walls went on Saturday afternoon with friends in the playpen, a popular boat place near Navy Pier, to get the best out of the first heat wave of the summer, her mother said.

But then something went wrong and walls, a 27-year-old hairdresser, fell off the boat. When she was withdrawn, she did not breathe and died shortly thereafter, the authorities said.

Walls was one of the two likely drownments at the weekend, in which the Chicago fire brigade says that it responded to 90 calls of heat and water-related need.

“Everyone can lose a fight with Lake Michigan,” Kizzy Wells, the mother of Walls, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Those currents do not play fairly.”

In the meantime, the police resumed a search on Monday for a missing skipper near 63rd Street Beach, which also went in the water on Saturday afternoon.

The heat wave brought in the middle of 90 degrees temperatures to the city and heat indices that pushed past 100, according to the National Weather Service. The heat sent many to Lake Michigan to cool, but the water was not necessarily as safe as it could have appeared, said spokesman Larry Langford, Chicago Fire Department.

“You don’t know what more is waiting for you,” he said. “It can look calm, but under the surface with a few feet it can go churn.”

Wall According to the police, not responding in the water near Navy Pier on Saturday around 5:15 pm. She was taken to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was declared dead, according to the office of the Cook County Medical Examiner.

Walls was a well -known hairdresser with more than 76,000 followers on social media and owner of Z The Stylist Suites in Chicago Lawn. She had worked with celebrities and influencers and spent most of her time, said her mother. She was also close to her family, especially her mother, her 5-year-old goddaughter and her younger sister, Tia.

“Her whole focus was to take care of her family,” said Wells. “She was just so mature from such a young age.”

Walls grew up in North Lawndale and was good friends with Kenneka Jenkins, the 19-year-old who was found dead in a freezer in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont in 2017, Wells said.

Walls was invited to a boat by a friend who rented it, Wells said. She received a phone call from Walls’s friend that she was saved from the water and was taken to the hospital.

“I felt in my heart that something was wrong,” said Wells. “I knew something was wrong.”

She said that walls had a “modest spirit” and did not hold a resentment.

“She would encourage others, even if she didn’t feel at her best,” said Wells. “Our phone calls always ended with ‘I love you’.”

The apparent drowning took place during the black hunting weekend, but the group said in an Instagram statement that it was not in the event area or was connected to one of those present at the event.

The Chicago police said that their marine unit would resume a search for another skipper near 63rd Street Beach earlier Saturday afternoon.

According to Langford, two people were reported in need in the water when they swim from a pontoon boat near the beach. One person was able to reach the coast, but the other person was not found on Monday morning.

Several others were also injured in sailing, Langford said. A 27-year-old man was trapped between two boats that bumped into the playpen, a popular party spot for water sports enthusiasts between Oak Street and Ohio Street beaches that have seen several controversial accidents in recent years. The man’s foot was partially amputated from the accident, Langford said.

Langford warned against drinking while on boats and swimming in the playing because the boats are close together and alcohol lower the inhibitions and reflexes of a person.

“Drinking and being on boats is a problem,” he said. “Operators are of course allowed to drink nothing at all. You end up in the water, the boats are nearby, you get small collisions that can become in great injuries.”

In August 2022, a woman After she was caught in the propeller of a yacht during an accident in the play. Three drowning were reported in two days that same month.

The fire brigade responded to a number of other calls that did not lead to injuries this weekend, Langford said. He not only advised to swim and reminded people that Chicago Park District swimming pools are open for the summer. At least one of this weekend’s calls were people on a jet ski who needed help to return to the coast. He advised that people always wear a life jacket during a jet ski.

“Some people don’t do it, with tragic results,” Langford said. “If you fall off and you have a life jacket, at least you float until someone can come and get you.”