A Tennessee dad died saving his three daughters from dangerous rip tides in Florida — and his final words to them were “I got you.”

Fred Pepperman, 53, was vacationing in Panama City with his family on July 26 — the eve of his 28th wedding anniversary — when he noticed his youngest daughter, Grace, 16, was caught in a rip tide stirred up by the approaching Tropical Storm Barry, Fox17 Nashville reported.

His two older daughters — Olivia, 20, and Kathryn, 24 — swam out to rescue the younger girl, but also became trapped in the turbulent waters.

That’s when Pepperman jumped into action and swam out to rescue his three girls, along with a couple of bystanders, getting them to safety.

“Kathryn said, ‘Daddy, help me,’ and he said, ‘I got you,'” Colette James, Pepperman’s sister-in-law, told “Today.” “Those were the last words he told her.”

His family said the hero dad drowned getting his girls to shore. Bystanders attempted CPR, but he was pronounced dead at a local hospital. His exact cause of death wasn’t clear.

“He did everything a dad is supposed to do,” his wife, Julie, told People magazine. “Without him, three of mine definitely would be gone.

“It doesn’t seem real. I just want people to know a lot of dads say they would do it and he did it, so that’s a dad.”

The family started a GoFundMe page to help pay for his daughters’ college costs.