KERNVILLE, Calif. -- A man was found dead in the Kern River Tuesday afternoon near the staging area of the Bull Fire, but no connection to the fire has been established.

Kern County deputies received a call around 3 p.m. Tuesday of a man in a raft yelling for help, according to Kern County Sheriff's Office spokesman Ray Pruitt.

Minutes later, the body of Claudio Estrada, 45 of Sun Valley, was found in an overturned raft, lodged between a rock and the shoreline near Riverside Park by a golf course.

Estrada and two juveniles were riding the raft when it hit a rock, knocking all three out of it. But Estrada was tied to the raft and was unable to free himself in time, Pruitt said.

Despite the proximity of the incident to the fire, it was unclear whether the incident was somehow connected to the Bull Fire, which has scorched more than 5,000 acres since it broke out yesterday afternoon.