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Boston Pool Closed Over ‘Serious Safety Concerns,' Including Electric Shock Risk

The city has another outdoor pool, Mirabella Pool in the North End, which opens for the season on Saturday

This 2016 file photo shows someone in the water at BCYF Clougherty Pool in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood.
Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, File

One of Boston's two outdoor public pools is staying closed this summer because of serious structural issues, including exposed live wires underneath it and the potential that filtration tanks could burst.

The 73-year-old Clougherty Pool in Charlestown was also found in a spring audit to have deteriorating support columns, the city said in a statement Friday.

"The condition of the Clougherty Pool facility has raised serious safety concerns, and we are unwilling to jeopardize the safety of the pool's patrons and the staff," the pool's website says.

The city has another outdoor pool, Mirabella Pool in the North End, which opens for the season on Saturday. And the city noted that there is a pool at the Charlestown Community Center, which is near Clougherty.

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"We did not make this decision lightly," Marta Rivera, commissioner of Boston Centers for Youth & Families, said in a statement Friday. "This pool is a well-loved community resource that will be missed this summer but ultimately the safety of our patrons and our staff is the priority and we cannot guarantee that the BCYF Clougherty Pool is safe to open."

Lifeguards are being redeployed throughout the Boston Centers for Youth & Families swimming network, the agency said.

Residents have been upset that Clougherty is closed, with more than 1,000 people signing an online petition calling for immediate repairs.

NBC10 Boston reached out to Boston Centers for Youth & Families to ask if anyone had been hurt because of the concerns that prompted the pool's closure.

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