HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. (AP) – The Florida lifeguard who was fired after leaving his post to help rescue a swimmer outside his zone will be offered his job back, but he says no thanks.
Jeff Ellis, head of a company that provides lifeguards at Hallandale Beach, tells the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Tomas Lopez was fired too quickly.
Ellis says no area of the beach his company patrols was left unattended while Lopez went to assist a swimmer in distress. The victim survived and was hospitalized.
Ellis said Thursday Lopez should never have been fired. But Lopez says he's not interested in taking the job back.
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Jeff Ellis, head of a company that provides lifeguards at Hallandale Beach, tells the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Tomas Lopez was fired too quickly.
Ellis says no area of the beach his company patrols was left unattended while Lopez went to assist a swimmer in distress. The victim survived and was hospitalized.
- [h=3]STORY: Fla. lifeguard helps save life, gets fired[/h]
Ellis said Thursday Lopez should never have been fired. But Lopez says he's not interested in taking the job back.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to [email protected]. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.
USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the FAQ and Conversation Guidelines.