A Florida lifeguard who saved a drowning man outside of his assigned area was fired for leaving his section of the beach in the town of Hallandale Beach, according to reports on Wednesday.
“I ran out to do the job I was trained to do,” said Tomas Lopez, 21, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I didn’t think about it at all.”
His supervisor said Lopez stepped out of his jurisdiction.
“We have liability issues and can’t go out of the protected area,” supervisor Susan Ellis told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “What he did was his own decision. He knew the company rules and did what he thought he needed to do.”
Two other lifeguards quit in protest over the incident. “What was he supposed to do? Watch a man drown?” Szilard Janko, one of the lifeguards who quit, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“They didn’t tell me in a bad way. It was more like they were sorry, but rules are rules,” Lopez told the publication. “I couldn’t believe what was happening.”
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