Local authorities across the United States are reporting a surge in fatal water incidents as summer recreation peaks, with at least eight people dying in separate drownings between late June and mid-July. Many of the victims were on lakes and rivers in Texas, Utah, Arizona, South Carolina and along the Colorado River, and several lost their lives while attempting to save others. North Texas recorded three fatalities in a single week. Dallas firefighter Juan Chaidez, 38, was found on 23 June after disappearing during a weekend kayak trip. The following weekend, divers recovered the bodies of an unnamed 26-year-old man and a 28-year-old visitor from Mississippi who vanished in separate incidents near Pier 121 Marina on Lewisville Lake. In Utah, Daniel Braga Figueiredo, 31, died on 12 July at Silver Lake Flat Reservoir after lifting a drifting 12-year-old girl onto an inflatable tube. The same day, an unidentified man drowned in Huntington Reservoir. Two days later a Utah park ranger, Wyatt Manis, jumped into the Provo River to keep a trapped paddleboarder’s head above water for nearly 30 minutes, later saying, “I knew time was of the essence.” The weekend also turned deadly elsewhere. Jeff Brady, 51, of San Diego drowned in the Colorado River after rescuing two young boys, while a Georgia father of three died off Pawleys Island, South Carolina, after pulling swimmers from a rip current. In Arizona, Maricopa County divers recovered an unidentified man from 14 feet of water at Lake Pleasant’s Two Cow Cove. Rescue agencies involved in the incidents say none of the victims were wearing life jackets at the time and are urging visitors to stay close to shore, secure flotation devices and monitor changing currents as temperatures — and water traffic — rise.