ORANGE BEACH, Ala. - The Orange Beach lifeguard and fire and rescue services have been called to assist at least three swimmer in distress in the last two days including two at the same place on Monday.

Red flags have been flying for the past several days warning people of a strong rip tide. Battalion Chief Jeff Smith of Orange Beach Fire and Rescue said people need to heed the warning.

‘People just need to learn,” he said. “You’ve got to be careful. They just don’t realize the magnitude of it. It affects everybody. We don’t like dealing with that kind of stuff.”

Two of the recent victims were taken by Lifeflight, one Sunday night to Sacred Heart and another Monday afternoon to Baptist.

In the Monday afternoon incident a man in his 50s was pulled from the water and was unconscious when he was flown out, officials said. A few minutes after that incident, crews got another call to the same State Park beach across from Caribe Resort, but that swimmer managed to get out of the water.

Smith had barely gotten off the scene of the Monday afternoon incident when the second one came out.

“We actually left the beach and I took a friend of the man over to Caribe to his vehicle,” Smith said. “I was going over the bridge and got another call to the same place. I turned around and by the time I got back there they’d already pulled them out of the water.”

On Sunday night an adolescent was pulled from the water and flown to Sacred Heart. Smith wasn’t on duty but said the night rescue came with a bit of luck.

“They said if they hadn’t been lucky and had some people with flashlights trained on the person they’d never got them out of the water,” Smith said. “But they were actually rescued by firefighters, pulled in and sent off by helicopter.”

Smith said the adolescent was conscious breathing when the patient was flown out.