Hundreds of mourners gathered at Dockweiler State Beach on Saturday to remember LA County Fire Department ocean lifeguard Brian Keith Kutil, who passed away during a routine swim test at Mira Costa High School on January 15. He was 42.
Members of the fire department, dressed in their blue uniforms or lifeguard outfits, friends and family members listened to stories about the El Segundo native as a rescue boat similar to the one he had worked on sat offshore.
Andrew Greger, who captained the boat on which Kutil worked for the past seven years, recalled how Kutil could eat a pound of poke in one shift and how the tattoos on his knuckles spelled out “LAUGHING.”
“I know he’s laughing right now because I’m a horrible public speaker,” said Greger.
He also told about the time that Kutil saved a swimmer caught in a rip current off of Venice whom the beach lifeguard couldn’t reach.
“A little while later, we got a call saying, ‘Thanks for saving her. I thought she was going to drown,” Greger said.
Kutil’s sister Cindy recalled her brother’s love of cheeseburgers and how she would take him to Charbroiled Burgers in El Segundo to keep him from telling their parents when she came home late at night.
“Brian was a hero,” she said, tearing up. “As your sister, I want to say to you, Brian, that you were my hero.” ER
