NEWPORT BEACH : Lifeguards’ Response to Be Investigated

The Newport Beach city attorney’s office has requested an investigation into allegations that city lifeguards failed to respond quickly enough to a drowning swimmer earlier this week.

City Atty. Robert Burnham said the investigation was “fairly standard” after such accidents. He and other city officials would not comment on lifeguards’ attempts to save Lorenzo Serrato Cornejo, 18.

“We’ve turned it over to the city attorney,” said Marine Safety Lt. John Blauer, who is in charge of the city’s lifeguard staff.

Witness Steve Gorme, a surfer who tried to help the drowning man Wednesday morning, alleges that once lifeguards were notified of the emergency, they lagged behind during the first critical minutes.

He says that two lifeguard vehicles and three lifeguards arrived on the scene, but no one immediately jumped in the water to try to save the man.

“I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Is anyone going to go out in the water, or are we just going to have a picnic on the beach?’ ” Gorme said. “So I said, ‘Forget this,’ and went back in.”

Gorme further claims that it was about 10 minutes later before the first lifeguard reached the spot in the ocean where Cornejo apparently went under.

“I’m not exactly sure of the time. . . . It was a while, though, that’s for sure,” he said.

Blauer would not comment on the charges.

According to Newport Beach Police Department reports, eventually 11 rescue divers and the Sheriff’s Department’s patrol boat searched three hours for the missing man.

Cornejo, an Anaheim resident, was apparently swimming with two friends when the three men hit strong currents about 11:45 a.m.

One swimmer made it to shore, but Cornejo and the other friend couldn’t fight the tides, according to police reports.

Gorme said he saw the struggling pair, and the swimmer with Cornejo called to him for help. “This guy’s yelling ‘Help! Help!’ He says, ‘You got to help my friend, he can’t swim.’ ”

Gorme says he gave the swimmer his surfboard and dove under repeatedly to look for Cornejo, but was unable to see him.

He said he then went to shore about the same time the lifeguards arrived in Jeeps, and it was then that he waited a few minutes on the beach for the lifeguards to go in before he headed back into the water himself to try to save Cornejo.

“It just really made me mad,” said Gorme, 22, a Long Beach resident who is a college student, works part time, and surfs nearly every day.

Blauer said the staff is no longer searching for the man, and there is nothing more his staff can do to try to find him.

“It’s just wait and see,” Blauer said. “Basically . . . he’s missing.”