Man killed by lightning while warning others of approaching storm | US News

A man died when he was struck by lightning while selflessly warning others of the approaching storm.

Patrick Dispoto was with his girlfriend Ruth Fussell at Seaside Park Beach in New Jersey on Sunday when they noticed the storm approaching.

The couple returned to their car, but 59-year-old Patrick told Ruth to wait in the car while he returned to the beach to warn other people about the approaching storm, despite her protests.

After about 15 minutes and several phone calls, Ruth went back to the beach where she found Patrick unconscious. A stranger was standing over him.

Paramedics performed CPR before taking him to hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Seaside Park Police Sergeant Andrew Casole confirmed that Patrick was “accidentally killed by a lightning strike.”

Ruth told WABC: “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 about to open. I’m just warning these kids – one minute.’ I said, ‘No.’

“He (the stranger) said, ‘Help, help, 911.’ I did mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and the man’s wife did CPR.”

Ruth said Patrick never missed an opportunity to make other people’s lives easier, adding: “So his last heroic act was his greatest, and that’s my Patrick Dispoto.”

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 at a beach in South Seaside Park.

Since 2006, there have been 16 lightning deaths in New Jersey, five of them on beaches.

Three days after Patrick’s death, Seaside Park installed a lightning warning system. However, a district administrator stressed that the installation was not in response to Patrick’s death. The system was purchased in April and installation was scheduled for Wednesday.

The $50,000 (£39,500) system monitors lightning strikes in clouds and from cloud to ground within a radius of up to 20 miles.

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