A New Jersey man died after he was struck by lightning on a beach when he returned to warn others about an incoming storm.
Patrick Dispoto, 59, and his girlfriend, Ruth Fussell, were enjoying the beach at Seaside Park in Ocean County, N.J., last Sunday when they spotted an incoming lightning storm and decided to pack up for the day.
Patrick Dispoto and Ruth Fussell.
Facebook / Patrick Dispoto
As they arrived at the safety of their truck, Fussell told ABC News, Dispoto decided to turn back to warn some kids in the water about the danger of the impending storm.
“He said, ‘I’ll be right back.’ I said, ‘You have no business going back.’ And he says, ‘I’m just going to warn these kids because the sky is going to open. I’m just going to warn these kids, one minute.’ I said, ‘No,’” Fussell told the outlet of their last conversation.
Fussell called her boyfriend three times but didn’t get a response. After about 15 minutes she headed back to the beach, where she found him unconscious in the sand.
Emergency responders performed CPR before taking Dispoto to the hospital. Tragically he was pronounced dead in hospital.
Seaside Park police confirmed to local station News 12 Wednesday that his death was caused by a lightning strike.
Seaside Park lifeguard captain Jim Rankin told News 12 that the beach is now working to improve their lightning detection systems. In April, the park approved US$50,000 (about C$68,450) to spend on three lightning warning systems to cover its more than two kilometre-long beach.
“We don’t want to tell people when the storm is here, we want to tell people that the storm is coming so that they can stay ahead of it,” he said.
“In the event of a thunderstorm, the beach is a very dangerous place to be. So if you feel things like a wind shift, if it’s fluttering back and forth between hot and cold, you see the clouds, you hear little rumbles of thunder – those are signs to get off the beach,” Ranking continued.
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