US firefighter drowns after rushing into the sea to save his daughter
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Firefighter Mark Batista drowned on Friday in an attempt to rescue his daughter after she was caught in a rip current.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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NEW YORK - A veteran firefighter drowned when he rushed into the ocean to save his daughter as a deadly rip current swept her away from shore during a family beach outing.
Mr Mark Batista, a father of three, drowned in the Atlantic waters along the New Jersey shore near Avon-by-the-Sea on Friday morning. His daughter, whose name and age were not released by the authorities, survived.
Rescuers found the teenager and rushed her to hospital, where she is expected to recover.
The girl was wading and splashing in the water when a fast-moving current swept her away from shore.
Mr Batista rushed into the water to rescue her, but the ocean pulled him under, the authorities said.
Mr Batista, 39, a long-time firefighter and emergency medical technician at the New York Fire Department (FDNY), drowned, said Mr Jim Long, a spokesman for the fire department.
He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
“I can’t promise to be here the rest of your life,” Mr Batista wrote in October on Instagram along with a photo of his smiling daughter, her arms wrapped around his neck. “But what I can promise is to love you for the rest of mine.”
His drowning was the second along the 200 km New Jersey coastline this year, according to data from the National Weather Service. The other victim was a 15-year-old boy who died over Memorial Day weekend in late May at Sandy Hook Beach. He was also pulled out to sea by a rip current.
In both cases, no lifeguards were on duty where the drownings occurred, according to the data and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office.
Lifeguards at Avon-by-the-Sea will begin to work full time on Saturday, the community’s website stated.
On Friday, after Mr Batista’s death, the sheriff’s office issued a statement on Facebook warning “all to please not go in the water when there are no lifeguards on duty”.
Mr Batista joined the FDNY in 2008.
“We are heartbroken to learn about the death of firefighter Mark Batista,” Mr Long said.
“(He) was a dedicated public servant who spent 15 years serving in the FDNY,” he added. “We join his family in mourning his tragic passing.”
Mr Batista’s wife, Mrs Lenin Batista, posted a message to friends and family on Instagram. “I feel lost, heartbroken and very afraid,” she wrote in Spanish.
On Sunday morning, Ms Janelle Rivera, a veteran emergency service technician and Mr Batista’s long-time friend, was stunned by the news.
She said he often took his family to the shore because his daughter loved the ocean.
“That his wife had to watch him go into that water and not come out, it kills me,” she added. “The life of his daughter is the result of his heroism, and that is everything a wife and mother could ever ask for.” NYTIMES
