Lifeguard fired for helping swimmers

My friends, this was taken from Jornal de Notícias newspaper:

http://www.jn.pt/PaginaInicial/Mundo/MundoInsolito/Interior.aspx?content_id=2649260&page=-1

Lifeguard fired for helping swimmers

A lifeguard in Miami was fired after saving a man on the beach side, outside its area of surveillance. The company says it has broken the rules but is reassessing the case.

Tomas Lopez, 21, was fired from his position as lifeguard after providing aid to a man outside their patrol, the Hallandale Beach, Miami.

The 'Jeff Ellis and Associates', the company that fired Tomas Lopez, said the lifeguard broke the rules of a company and put in danger the swimmers on the beach who was to watch.

The lifeguard assisted the man in the sand, together with a nurse, after they had called him in to help the victim, on Monday.

The man went to hospital where he remains hospitalized but Tomas Lopez was immediately fired.

Susan Ellis, supervisor of the company, says that "he took his own decision" but he knew what the rules were.

For Tomas Lopez it does not make sense that a signal area (un) protected is to make the separation between people who can be saved or not.

Colleagues of the young says that Hallandale beach never been without patrol, after the successful, two lifeguards resigned in solidarity with Tomas Lopez.

Now, the company says it is reassessing the situation.

Thanks, Pedro - I thought only the UK did idiotic things like that, I didn't know it had spread to the US.

You´re right bb1, what a complete stupidity, what a mentally retarded company.