Overview
- Firefighters reached South 4th Street in Cocoa Beach around 1 p.m. Tuesday and pulled four people from the water during a rip-current rescue.
- A 42-year-old man from Connecticut and a 34-year-old woman from Ohio were taken to Cape Canaveral Hospital and were pronounced dead.
- Officials say the two adults entered the surf to help a child who had been swept offshore, and the child did not need medical treatment.
- The rescue site was outside guarded zones with the nearest staffed lifeguard tower estimated at three-quarters of a mile to a mile away.
- Brevard County has reduced some tower coverage due to a lifeguard shortage and is recruiting at least 45 guards with tryouts planned, as the National Weather Service posts a high rip-current risk linked to damaged sandbars and fast, hard-to-spot “flash” rips.