ARTICLE:
A Florida lifeguard who was fired after leaving his beach zone to save a drowning man has been offered his job back. And has declined the offer.

Tomas Lopez, 21, who was sacked by employer Jeff Ellis & Associates after his heroics Monday at Hallendale Beach, 18 miles north of Miami, should never have been fired, Jeff Ellis told the Sun-Sentinel Thursday.

"I am of the opinion that the supervisors acted hastily, " Ellis said. "It was not the appropriate course of action to take," he said.

But after being offered his job back, Lopez told the Sun Sentinal that he sees that the company is trying to fix the issue, but that "on a personal level I just don't want to work for the company anymore."

The nine other lifeguards, who either quit in solidarity or were fired for stating publicly that they would also do as Lopez did, have been also offered their jobs back, the Sun Sentinal reports. Some of them have also decided to decline.

In the Monday incident, a beachgoer asked Lopez to help a drowning man on an unprotected part of the beach, according to reports. After running to help the victim, Lopez swam toward him, double-hooked him, and brought him ashore. An off-duty nurse tended to the swimmer's water-filled lungs before paramedics arrived.

"I was not supposed to leave my jurisdiction," Lopez told "Fox & Friends" Thursday morning.

It was not until Lopez filled out an incident report that he was fired.

"I'm not going to obey such a ridiculous rule," Lopez continued.

Due to legal liabilities, the company has a policy of firing any lifeguard who rescues someone outside their jurisdiction.

"We have liability issues and can't go out of the protected area," supervisor Susan Ellis initially told the Sun-Sentinel. "What he did was his own decision. He knew the company rules and did what he thought he needed to do."

The rescue victim remains in intensive care.

Another company with NO soul, or common sense, Under the new "Good Samaritan" laws what "liability issues?" would this company fear? I would think that having a person DROWN while your lifeguards stood and watched, refusing to help, because it was "out of there jurisdiction" would be FAR more damaging to the company than having someone take the initiative to save someone's life, if it was MY company I would make it a POINT to mention that MY lifeguard went "above and beyond" to save someone's life. But, what do I know

how ridiculous would any lifeguard look if he sat in his chair and watched somebody drown cuz he was other side of his "zone"? i applaud the lifeguard for both his actions and his refusal to go back to the slime he was working for after they saw how bad they looked in front of the whole world. i bet he has another lifeguarding job already...you know, this could be another interpretation of florida's "stand your ground" law...i just reread the fox story. it gets better. he was fired by company jeff ellis and associates. afterward, jeff ellis came on and said he shouldn't have been fired, supervisor acted hastily. supervisor?...susan ellis!!