At about 4:28 pm Sunday afternoon Soldotna Troopers were notified by the Anchorage Fire Department that two persons were stranded between Kincaid Park and Fire Island and were in distress.

Alaska State Troopers, LifeMed Alaska, Rescue Coordination Center assets and the Coast Guard responded to the scene.

The initial caller said that the two men had been trying to walk to Fire Island on the mudflats when the tide began to come in and that they were struggling to get back to dry ground. The tide last night was a 32.22-footer, one of the largest tides of the month.

As the waters quickly rose, the men went from walking to swimming. As they struggled to get back to shore, one of the men went under in the icy cold waters of the Inlet. The other barely made it safely back to shore.

The search for the missing man went on through the night with a dive boat as well as jetskis. LifeMed helicopters flew a gridsearch pattern searching for the lost man.

The man’s body was located and pulled from the water at 3:28 am on Monday morning by RCC personnel. His remains were sent to the State Medical Examiner’s office for autopsy. Next of kin notification is pending. His name has not been released.

According to the man’s friend, the drowning victim had made the walk to Fire Island on three other occasions before falling victim to the fast moving tide yesterday.