A man was saved from drowning while swimming in the Atlantic Ocean at a Fire Island beach where there was no lifeguard protection on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Marcos Cruz was swimming in an area outside the lifeguard protected area of Cherry Grove when he began to struggle to stay above water at 1:48 p.m., Suffolk County police said.
A Good Samaritan, a Marine Bureau officer, members of the Cherry Grove Fire Department and Fire Island National Seashore lifeguards worked together to rescue the man.
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Another beachgoer, 48-year-old Christina Lang of West Babylon, first saw Cruz struggling, swam out to him and kept Cruz from going underwater while people on shore got a line out to the pair and pulled them back onto the beach.
Officers, firefighters and lifeguards who responded from nearby Sailors Haven administered First Aid to the swimmers.
Lang and Cruz, 24, were both airlifted to Stony Brook University Medical Center for treatment.
