Man killed by lightning on beach while warning others of approaching storm, police said

(CNN) — A man died on a New Jersey beach on Sunday when he was struck by lightning while trying to warn other beachgoers about an approaching storm, authorities said.

Patrick Dispoto, 59, was at Seaside Park Beach with his girlfriend but returned to his car when they realized a storm was approaching, police Sergeant Andrew Casole said Wednesday.

His girlfriend told police she waited in the truck while Dispoto returned to the beach to warn the others about an approaching storm.

“He said, ‘I’ll be right back.’ I said, ‘You have no business being here.’ And he said, ‘I’m just warning these kids, because the heavens are going to open. I’m just warning these kids — one minute.’ I said, ‘No,'” Ruth Fussell, who identified herself as Dispoto’s girlfriend, told CNN affiliate WABC.

Fussell said she called Dispoto three times, but he didn’t answer. She waited about 15 minutes for him to return. Eventually, she returned to the beach and found Dispoto unconscious.

Emergency responders performed CPR on Dispoto and he was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead, police said. Dispoto died of “accidental death by lightning,” Casole said.

A few days after Dispoto’s death, Seaside Park installed a lightning warning system.

In April, Seaside Park officials purchased the Strike Guard lightning detection system, an investment of nearly $50,000, Seaside Park District Administrator Karen Kroon told CNN on Wednesday.

The system warns of lightning strikes by monitoring cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning within a user-specified radius of up to 20 miles (32 kilometers), the company’s website says.

Kroon said the installation, which has been in preparation for months, is planned for Wednesday. Kroon stressed that the installation is not a reaction to Sunday’s tragedy.

“The municipality has made this investment because public safety is extremely important and we want to do everything we can to warn our residents and visitors of impending danger,” Kroon said.

According to the National Lightning Safety Council, this is the third lightning death in the United States this year and the first fatality in New Jersey since 2021, when a lifeguard was killed on a beach in South Seaside Park. Since 2006, there have been 16 lightning deaths in New Jersey, five of which occurred on beaches.

Fussell told WABC that Dispoto never missed an opportunity to make someone’s life easier and that she wants people to know just that.

“So his last heroic act was his greatest, and that’s my Patrick Dispoto,” Fussell said.

CNN’s Nic F. Anderson contributed to this article

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