Hero Drowns While Saving Two Children

After jumping into the water and successfully rescuing two children who were drowning, a heroic man unfortunately lost his life.

At around 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, Marvin Chicas saw two children struggling in the water at the Tohickon Creek’s cliffs area in Nockamixon State Park, which is located in eastern Pennsylvania. The 37-year-old man leapt into action and successfully saved the children from drowning — but was ultimately unable to save himself.

Haycock Township Fire Chief Harry Grim led a search operation to find the heroic man, calling in ten divers to search the water. Two hours into the search, Chicas’ body was discovered roughly 25 feet from the shore.

“We had about 10 divers. Multiple boats from Point Pleasant, Bucks County, Haycock Fire Company, the Palisades Regional and stuff. The guys did a great job. It took about two hours until we found the body,” the fire chief said.

Grim later explained what likely happened during Chicas’ heroic rescue.

“They apparently got in some trouble in the water, he went in to help them. Unfortunately, he can’t swim. The kids got out, he did not,” he said.

The Bucks County Coroner’s Office later confirmed that his cause of death was drowning.

Speaking after the tragedy, Grim emphasized that swimming is strictly prohibited in Tohickon Creek and Lake Nockamixon — noting that visibility in the water is so bad that divers can’t even see their own hands.

“Unfortunately, people don’t follow the rules, and the sad reality is it’s not a smooth, gradual slope under the water, and they step off into a deep area, they take a gulp of water, and they die unfortunately. It shouldn’t happen, but it does,” the fire chief told WFMZ.

“Don’t swim in Lake Nockamixon,” Grim added. “It’s zero visibility this time of year. Divers at 10 feet cannot see their own hands in front of their face. So the chances of us finding them and being able to retrieve them and have them recover are pretty much slim-to-none.”

The children reportedly did not sustain any injuries. This was the second drowning death in the area in June. On June 19, nine-year-old Joey Malcolm Jr. was found dead after drowning in a pond near his home.