A man rushed into dangerous waters on San Francisco Beach on Thursday to try to rescue his dog. The man was pronounced dead in the hospital when the dog was removed from the ocean alive.

Northern California beaches are notorious for their powerful rifts, powerful waves and icy water temperatures that have earned the reputation of California's deadliest beaches.

Shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, the San Francisco Fire Department received a call from the man's call collapsed in the water on the Ocean Beach near Lawton Street in an attempt to save the dog. Fire officials said two women on the beach saw the man struggling and pulled him out of the ocean.

The staff of the National Park Service Marine Rescue Team arrived within two minutes and began performing CPR. Authorities said firefighters took the man to the hospital in critical condition and he died.

Fire officials said the dog went to the beach independently without serious injuries. The man's identity has not been released yet and his official cause of death is under investigation by the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office.

The San Francisco Fire Department thanked the heroic efforts of both bystanders, but reminded the public that when humans or animals need rescue, the best way to do this is to call 911 and allow trained professionals to respond due to dangerous conditions on the beach.

"It's the largest beach in San Francisco, and our members and National Park Service lifeguards died and rescued multiple times because of the powerful tearing current," said Mariano Elias, a fire department spokesman.

Eight people died at the beach between 2014 and 2020, according to surfing area deaths collected by the National Weather Service.

Kirby Lee, an experienced San Francisco surfer and father of two, fell into a coma in the water in November 2023 and provided life support at the hospital where he died four days later.

In July, the San Francisco Fire Department rescued two surfers at the mighty Rip Currents pulling almost a mile of sea to the vicinity of the Mile Rock Lighthouse.

According to the San Francisco Fire Department, swimming at Ocean Beach is very discouraged because people are swept to the sea at the San Francisco Fire Department. With the possibility of "sneaker waves", people even warned people to stay away from the coastline, which seems to be everywhere and farther than before.

"The waves of sneakers are insidious in nature. They don't show themselves as easily as climax day," the fire department said in a coastal safety warning. "That's what makes them so deadly."

Despite the dangerous conditions, there are no traditional lifeguards along the 3 Mile Beach coast. Instead, marine rescuers regularly patrol the beach to inform visitors about ocean risks and carry out rescue if needed.

While the massive death toll had to prompt calls to call a lifeguard post, National Park Service officials insisted that doing so would give the Ocean Beach a false and dangerous impression of being a swimming beach.