A man believed to have moved to the area for work drowned in a pool Friday at a Gaffney motel.

According to Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler, an unknown Hispanic male was found by a guest of the Homestead Lodge on Peachoid Road at the bottom of the lodging facility’s pool at about 5:25 p.m.

“After pulling the victim from the water, the guest began CPR on the pool deck while others rushed to call 9-1-1,” Fowler said.

The man was pronounced dead at Upstate Carolina Medical Center.

The coroner has ruled the death accidental, a result of asphyxiation due to drowning.

“Motel video surveillance recordings indicate the victim entered the pool at 5:18 p.m. and went under one minute later,” Fowler said. “It is not immediately known if he could swim.”

The man is believed to have moved here from Florida two weeks ago to work for a local tomato farm. Fowler said his office will send the man’s fingerprints to several states including Georgia and Florida in an effort to ascertain his identity.

The coroner said during the course of the next several weeks he will be working with the S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to determine if drugs or alcohol played a role in the drowning.

“It’s an unfortunate and rare occurrence, but we must cover all our bases and see if drugs or alcohol could have something to do with why he died,” Fowler said. Toxicology samples have been sent to SLED headquarters in Columbia for testing, with results expected to return within the next three to four weeks.

Located in a central area and reserved only for motel guests, the pool’s deepest point is nine feet. Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., a sign secured to a gate warns of restricted access and to “swim at your own risk.”

A lifeguard was not present at the time of the incident, Fowler said.

Local resident Anthony Fair Jr. was the last water-related death in Cherokee County prior to Friday, drowning in the Broad River during a camping trip near the Cherokee Falls Dam in May 2008. Earlier that year, 25-year old Verlisha Littlejohn was found in a similar location along the river, with Fowler concluding the Gaffney woman also drowned.

More than 3,000 deaths nationwide were attributed to drowning in a 2007 report compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An additional 496 people died from drowning and other causes during boating-related incidents, the study said.

A report the same year by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) found approximately 2 percent of all deaths statewide were the result of drownings.

Children under the age of 14 are victims of more than one in five drowning deaths each year, though all age groups are stressed to swim with extreme caution.