21-year-old (former) lifeguard, Tomas Lopez, was fired for vacating his lifeguarding zone to rescue a man drowning in unprotected waters 1,500 feet south of his post on Hallandale Beach, Florida.
“It is a ridiculous rule, really. What was I supposed to do? Just let the guy drown?” asked Lopez in a CNN interview.
The company that hired Lopez objected that he left his appointed zone to conduct the rescue. “We have liability issues and can’t go out of the protected area,” his supervisor told the Sun Sentinel newspaper. “What he did was his own decision. He knew the company rules.”
What a joke policy. What a joke company. I hope they drown in debt from all the PR bills they’ll need to recover from this incident.
