A man died Thursday after rushing into the perilous waters of the San Francisco Ocean beach entirely dressed in saving his dog, the authorities said. While the dog came out of the living ocean, the man was declared dead in a hospital.
Northern California beach is known for its strong tear currents, its powerful waves and its icy water temperatures which have earned it a reputation for the deadliest beach in California.
Thursday’s incident took place shortly after 2 p.m. when the San Francisco fire service received a man that a man had collapsed in the water at Ocean Beach near Lawton Street after jumping to try to save a dog. Two women on the beach saw the man struggle and left him from the ocean, fire officials said.
The crews of the Ocean Rescue team from the National Park Service arrived in two minutes and began to carry out the RCR. The firefighters’ staff took the man to a hospital in critical condition and died, the authorities said.
The dog arrived at the beach independently without serious injury, said fire officials. The identity of the man has not been released and his official cause of death is awaiting the office of the medical examiner of San Francisco.
The San Francisco fire service thanked the two passers -by for their heroic efforts, but reminded the public that the best thing to do when a human or an animal needs help is to call 911 and allow trained professionals to respond due to the dangerous conditions at the beach.
“It is the largest beach here in San Francisco, and we had several dead and several stops by our members and the rescuers of the National Park Service because of the fact that there are such high currents of RIP,” said the spokesperson for the fire service, Lieutenant Mariano Elias.
Between 2014 and 2020, eight people died at the beach, according to death data from the surf zone collected by the National Weather Service.
Kirby Lee, an experienced surfer from San Francisco and father of two, was found unconscious floating in the water in November 2023 and put support for life in a hospital where he died four days later.
In July, the San Francisco fire service saved two surfers near the Mile Rocks lighthouse after powerful rip currents pulled them to almost a mile at sea.
Swimming is strongly discouraged at Ocean Beach, because people were swept away at sea as little as 3 feet of water, according to the San Francisco fire service. People are even warned to stay away from the shore due to the possibility of “waves of sneakers”, which apparently seem out of nowhere and extend further on the sand than the previous waves.
“Sneakers are insidious in nature. They do not easily arise as high surf days,” the fire service said in a coastal security warning. “This is what makes them so deadly.”
Despite the dangerous conditions, there are no traditional rescuers parked along the 3 mile beach. Instead, ocean rescue staff regularly patrol Ocean Beach to inform visitors of ocean risks and perform rescues if necessary.
Although the high number of deaths has prompted calls to add rescuer positions, the officials of the National Park Service argued that this would give a false and dangerous impression that Ocean Beach is a bathing range.
California Daily Newspapers
