PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – A Georgia father who died on South Carolina’s Pawleys Island over the weekend had helped save multiple swimmers in distress from a rip current before drowning, authorities have confirmed.
Anderson “Chase” Childers, 38, was a husband, father of three, and former police officer. He was vacationing on Pawleys Island, a place he and his family visited multiple times a year, when another family got caught in a rip current.
“His first responder instincts kicked in and he went to the water to save people,” said Pawleys Island Chief of Police Michael Fanning.
Chase’s family told Nexstar’s WCBD that a woman asked him for help rescuing the distressed swimmers, and without hesitation, he ran into the water.
Chase and another person were able to save the swimmers; however, when Chase’s wife saw the family of five and the other man come back to the shore without her husband, Midway Fire Rescue was dispatched to the scene.
Pawleys Island police and the Coast Guard joined the search and recovered Chase’s body about 90 minutes later.
“Chase was a truly selfless individual, always prioritizing the safety of others above his own. Without hesitation, he would leap into action whenever someone was in need, ready to tackle any challenge that came his way. To his family and all who knew him, he will forever be remembered as a hero,” his family said in a statement to WCBD.
This is not the first life Chase has saved. When he worked as a police officer, he received the Cobb County Police Department Life Saving award in 2012.
Law enforcement officials said this has been the fifth drowning on Pawleys Island since June of 2023, and the second in the past month. Sandbars in the Atlantic Avenue area are popular hangout spots, but they can become deadly quickly.
Pawleys Island police told WCBD they are now taking extra steps to prevent future drownings.
“We’re working to educate the people who rent here, the people who visit here. We’re getting magnets for all the houses that explain rip currents and how to deal with it. We’re going to put up extra signage in the areas that are prone to these rip currents. We have life rings at all beach accesses, but I think we need to increase life rings in certain areas that are hazard-prone,” said Fanning.
Police say if you do get caught in a rip current, “don’t panic, swim parallel to the shore until you’re out of the current. Then make your way back in.”