Staying safe on the water during the 4th of July

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Dozens of people were at Reedley Beach on Thursday afternoon. It was all in celebration of the 4th of July holiday.

"Go down the river and make our way back down here, we're gonna go tubing," said Reedley resident Arianna Yanez.

It's the first time Yanez and her friend, Asia Baylas, tubed down the King's River.

They were equipped for whatever troubles the water might bring.

"Having an extra tube with us so that if one of our pops, you know there's a lot of greenery on the side, that we can go over to that one and have that as an option," said Baylas.

Late Thursday morning, Fresno County Sheriff's deputies were busy helping people in water.

"We're going up and down the river at all times we're monitoring our busy areas where we have our most problems. And the deputies were right on it, they happen to just see a couple of people that were stuck in the trees," said Fresno County Sheriff's Office Sergeant, Chris Tullus.

From Angel Falls to Skags Bridge, there have been nine drownings in our area this summer.

Sergeant Tullus says it's always heartbreaking to respond to these types of calls.

"We're seeing too many people drown and people are not wearing their lifejackets. People are going into the rivers when they can't swim. If you cannot swim, you have no business being in the river, it's just simply too dangerous," explained Tullus.

College student Kyrie Schaeffer lives in Dinuba and organized a donation drive to collect life jackets.

She hopes to bring awareness to the importance of water safety while helping those who can't afford safety equipment.

"We have drop off locations in Kingsburg as of right now at the fire department, the police department and Kcaps nonprofit organization," Schaeffer said.

We also partnered with the Dinuba Police Department to extend that area of reach."

Schaeffer plans to donate the life jackets to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office to distribute to people throughout the summer.

If you'd like to donate to buying lifejackets, click here.

For news updates, follow Vince Ybarra on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.