Getty Images: Robin Utrecht/AFP
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.
Lopez and an off-duty nurse helped him until paramedics arrived.
The victim survived and was hospitalized. Afterward, Lopez was fired. Two other lifeguards have quit in protest.
The Associated Press