Beaches see large crowds for Fourth of July

COCOA BEACH, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - Crowds have been flocking to Brevard County beaches all day long to celebrate the Fourth of July in the sea and sun.

Brevard Ocean Rescue reports there have been no rescues, three heat related emergencies, one other medical emergency, three cases of vessels getting too close to swimmers, three cases of missing kids that needed to be reunited with their parents. 

As beach goers kicked back, lifeguards were on high alert and once a lifeguard always a lifeguard.

“It’s in our blood, its still there,” said Wyatt Werneth.

Werneth was the Chief Lifeguard from 1994 to 2008 in Brevard County. Even though he’s technically not working, this holiday he’s on the beach.Brevard Ocean Rescue says every year roughly 4.5 million people go to Brevard’s public beaches. And Werneth says the 4th is typically the busiest day.“And we have a lot of missing kids on the fourth, I can tell you that,” Werneth remembered.Being a lifeguard, Werneth was a re-uniter, a rescuer and a rule enforcer. Tourists often show up with inner tubes and floats. Werneth would tell them those aren’t allowed. And on 4th Street South in Cocoa Beach Eddie Gelles makes an American flag every year out of mulch and seashells. He does it in memory of his father- who served in the Korean War.“He felt the luckiest thing he had in the world, besides being married to my mother, was being an American,” Gelles said.