Mr. Bill Krick

Bill Krick survived 34 years as a firefighter. He died fishing, a sport he loved.

Mr. Krick, 66, a fourth-generation West Palm Beacher who retired eight years ago as a city Fire-Rescue battalion chief, vanished Saturday in Everglades National Park, according to his family and a National Park Service spokeswoman. His body was found Sunday afternoon.

He died with his first grandchild on the way.

Mr. Krick disappeared beneath the surface of Oyster Bay, in the park’s Shark River area, around 5:30 p.m. Saturday, park service spokeswoman Linda Friar said Sunday evening.

The Coast Guard and Everglades National Park officials searched Saturday night for the missing man, even calling in a Jayhawk helicopter with night-vision capabilities from the Coast Guard station in Clearwater.

Severe thunderstorms Sunday hampered the search, but Mr. Krick’s body finally was found and was turned over to the Monroe County Medical Examiner, Friar said.

Mr. Krick’s family and friends said they believe he had some sort of medical problem right before he disappeared.

“Bill’s been a fisherman and in and out of the water his whole life. He’s one of the strongest swimmers I’ve ever seen in my life,” family friend Patricia Abram said Sunday from the family home in Palm Beach Gardens.

She said her husband, John Poff of Wellington, and Mr. Krick’s brother-in-law, John Dolezar of the Orlando area, had rented a houseboat and two flatboats at Flamingo and were in Oyster Bay, in the Shark River area.

“It was a fishing trip they’d taken many times,” she said. She said her husband was too distraught to come to the phone.

“They fished in the morning, went back to the boat, and had lunch,” Abram said. She said Dolezar then took one flatboat to retrieve a favorite fishing reel he’d lost in the water.

At that point, she said, Poff noticed Mr. Krick’s flatboat had broken loose from the houseboat in a strong current and Mr. Krick dove in after it.

Abram said Poff quickly saw that his friend was in distress. Amid the noise of the houseboat’s generator, he shouted to ask whether Mr. Krick was OK. She said Mr. Krick appeared to mouth that he wasn’t.

She said Poff dashed into the houseboat and grabbed three life jackets.

“He came out 60 seconds later. Bill was gone.”

Mr. Krick is survived by his wife Cathy D.; his son William P. and wife Shannon of Plano, Texas; and a brother Peter and Peter’s wife Sarah, of Grand Junction, Colo.; as well as his mother Alma Krick.

Funeral arrangements were underway Sunday.

Staff writer Willie Howard contributed to this story.