Lifeguard fired after helping save drowning man
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helped save a drowning man and got fired for it.
The reason: He left the section of a south Florida beach his company is paid to patrol. The Orlando-based company, Jeff Ellis and Associates, says Lopez broke a company rule and could have put beachgoers in his section in jeopardy.
The Sun Sentinel reported Lopez was on duty Monday at Hallandale Beach when a beachgoer asked for help.
Lopez said he ran to assist a man struggling in the water south of his post.
By the time Lopez arrived, witnesses had pulled the drowning man out of the water.
"I went under under both of his arms, while another guest carried him under his legs, like a craddle carrying him," Tomas Lopez told CBS News.
Lopez and an off-duty nurse helped him until paramedics arrived. The victim survived and was hospitalized.
Afterward, Lopez was fired.
The area of the beach was past a sign that read "swim at your own risk."
"I think it's ridiculous honestly that a sign is what separates someone from being safe and not safe," Lopez said.
Two other lifeguards have quit in protest.
On Thursday, the Jeff Ellis Management Company, which has the contract to provide lifeguards for Hallandale Beach's two beaches and municipal pool, said they were hasty in the firing of 21-year-old Tomas Lopez on Monday, CBS News reports.
"A guest come up to me and told me someone's drowning," Lopez said. "I didn't see him, I just started running towards his direction.
"If that's the case, then what happened here is not appropriate acorrding to our agreement," Jeff Ellis said, "and it doesn't mean it was right or wrong, I'm sure the young man was well intentioned, what it does mean is that it requires revisiting with the city what they want to do in terms of expectations of the life guards protecting their beach."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press / CBS News contributed to this report
