One of three men who pulled a driver from a car that plunged into the Nerang River on Friday said he would rather live on the dole than work for the man who sacked him because he could not make it to work after the rescue.

Andrew Fisher, a 32-year-old father of two from Bundall on the Gold Coast, was the first to dive into the river at Surfers Paradise, braving sharp, oyster-covered rocks to save a 30-year-old man whose car had ploughed through a guard rail into the water.

But when Mr Fisher, a fibreglass gun operator, phoned his boss about 3am to tell him he could not work due to the deep cuts he had sustained on his feet and arms, he was told he no longer had a job.