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Effort Underway To Help Family Of Man Who Drowned Trying To Save Girl In Ocean Off South Coast

Police say a man who drowned in the ocean near Santa Barbara Harbor was trying to save the life of a girl who was caught in rip tides.

Crescencio Ramos Ramirez was with his family near when he saw the girl struggling in the water Thursday afternoon. He got caught in a rip tide. A surfer was able to reach the 33 year old man, and help get him to shore, but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

The girl was rescued by other people on hand.

Ramirez worked at a local resort, and had lived in the area for more than a decade. A GoFundMe campaign is underway to try to raise $15,000 to help his family, and to pay for the return of his body to his native Mexico for burial.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.