More Texas children have drowned so far this year than in all of 2015.

In North Texas, one of the most recent deaths was 3-year-old Luke Tharp, who drowned Saturday at his home in the Denton County town of Hickory Creek, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner. His death was ruled an accident.

As of Aug. 4, at least 82 children had drowned. Last year's total was 75, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

The victims range from younger than a month old to 17 years old, and the majority have drowned in backyard or apartment pools, according to the state.

Seven children have drowned in Tarrant County. Both Dallas and Denton counties have had five drownings, and Collin County has had one.

Texas leads the nation in total and per capita pediatric drowning deaths, according to the Fort Worth Drowning Prevention Coalition. And Tarrant County is in the top three.

"We have a real problem here in Fort Worth," said Fire Department spokesman Kyle Falkner.

Earlier this year, a group made up of members of the Fort Worth Firefighter Charities and Cook Children's Medical Center raised nearly $25,000 to purchase 1,800 custom pool safety signs.

Since April 1, volunteers and firefighters have installed the signs -- one in English, one in Spanish -- at about 900 pools around the city, said firefighter Mike Drivdahl with the Fort Worth Professional Firefighters Association.

He said they're hoping the signs, which feature infographics, grab people's attention before they let a child go into the water unsupervised or without a life jacket, or pick up a cellphone and get distracted.

"We’re trying to explain you can’t just put your kid in the pool and not think about them anymore," he said.

Drivdahl said that people are used to seeing signs such as "no diving" or "no lifeguard on duty" but they don't really address the drowning problem.

"We don’t want to go to these calls anymore," Drivdahl said.

Recently he spoke with a firefighter who hustled to put up 20 signs in a day.

"He said, 'I'm tired of pulling kids out of pools,'" Drivdahl said. "That's the general consensus, we don't want to do it. We don't want to pull a kid out of a pool."

One day in June, two boys were pulled from the water from separate locations in Fort Worth. One survived, the other died at a hospital. Fire officials said that in both incidents, dozens of people were around when the child went under.

The catchphrase "two seconds is too long" is supposed to draw attention to the consequences of looking away, even for a moment.