A man drowns while attempting to rescue 2 children in California, USCG says

A man is dead and two children are missing in the water off the Sonoma County coast in Jenner, officials said Sunday evening.

Shortly after 2:30 p.m., authorities responded to a call seeking a water rescue for three people at Blind Beach, which is near the well-known Goat Rock Beach, said Shaun Bouyea, a flight officer paramedic for the California Highway Patrol.

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter and a CHP helicopter responded to the scene, along with several local fire departments and the U.S. Coast Guard, Bouyea said. One of the three unidentified people being searched for, an adult man, was pronounced dead at the scene before the CHP arrived, according to Bouyea.

As of early Sunday evening, authorities were still searching for two children, whose relationship to the man was not immediately clear. Bouyea said the sheriff’s helicopter had exhausted its fuel and left because of heavy fog in the area, but the Coast Guard was still looking for the children in the water.

“The surf was horrible out there,” Bouyea said.

He deferred further questions to the Sheriff’s Office, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.