HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — The Florida lifeguard who was fired after leaving his post to help rescue a swimmer outside his zone will be offered his job back.
Jeff Ellis, head of an Ocala-based 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. Witnesses pulled the man out of the water and Lopez and an off-duty nurse tended to him until paramedics arrived.
Lopez was fired shortly after on grounds he'd broken a company rule by leaving his section of the beach.
"I'm not going to put my job over going to help someone," Lopez said. "I'm going to do what I felt was right, and I did."
Following Lopez' firing several lifeguards quit in protest, and Hallandale Beach's former vice mayor said he asked for the city to look into not renewing the $334,000 contract with Ellis' company.
But Thursday Ellis said Lopez should never have been fired and would be getting an offer to go back to work. But Lopez says he's not interested in taking the job back
Previous Story: Lifeguard fired for rescue outside designated area