Lightning kills man trying to warn beachgoers of incoming storm

SEASIDE PARK, N.J. — A man died Sunday night after he tried to warn beachgoers in New Jersey of an incoming storm and got struck by lightning, according to multiple reports.

Patrick Dispoto, 59, was pronounced dead at a hospital after he was found unconscious at the Seaside Park beach on Sunday, the Ashbury Park Press reported. An autopsy on Tuesday found his death to be accidental as a result of lightning, according to News 12 New Jersey.

Dispoto’s girlfriend, Ruth Fussell, told WABC-TV that they were getting ready to leave the beach when Dispoto decided he needed to go back to warn kids in the water that a thunderstorm was approaching.

“He said, ‘I’ll be right back,’” she told the news station. “I said, ‘You have 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.’”

She told WABC that Dispoto made sure that she was safe in his truck before going back to the beach. Fifteen minutes, after he failed to answer three of her calls, she said she went to check on him and found him face-down in the sand with someone standing over him.

“He was saying, ‘Help, help, 911,’” Fussell told WABC. “I administered mouth to mouth, and the guy’s wife was doing chest compressions.”

The incident happened after storm clouds began moving in around 7 p.m., according to News 12 New Jersey. Dispoto was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead just before 9 p.m., the news station reported.

Officials in Seaside Park began work Tuesday to install an upgraded lightning detection system to warn people of incoming storms, according to News 12 New Jersey.

“In the event of a thunderstorm, the beach is a very dangerous place to be,” Seaside Park lifeguard captain Jim Rankin told the news station. “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.”

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