No lifeguards at Orange Beach

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. - You depend on lifeguards to keep you safe. But what if there are no lifeguards to save swimmers when they are in trouble?

Melvin Shepard with the Department of Parks and Recreation says the city of Orange Beach can't hire lifeguards because the beaches are private property that belong to the state.

"There's not really a lot the city can do about it but make proposals. Ultimately it's going to be up to the state to hire lifeguards," said Shepard. He said the city has made proposals to bring in lifeguards, but it has "been a dead end".

The Clark family is in town on Spring Break vacation. They said since they didn't see any lifeguards on the beach, they were staying on shore. "I think it's safer to have a lifeguard on the beach, I do", said Jill Clark.

But Orange Beach city officials are doing everything they can to make sure you stay safe when you hit the water. "We've trained a number of our city employees to respond to swimmers in distress. Roughly 25 firefighters have gone through the training as well as 10 to 15 police officers, and a number of my staff from parks and recreation", said Shepard.

He said the city will try again to get the state to provide lifeguards in the future. "Whether or not that will happen is going to rely on the state," said Shepard.