On Sunday at Seaside Park Beach in New Jersey, Patrick Dispoto, a 59-year-old man, was hit by lightning as he tried to notify other beachgoers about an upcoming storm, which is just heartbreaking. Dispoto’s girlfriend pleaded with him not to go back to the beach but he insisted that his mission was to save children and other people.
Ruth Fussell reported the incident to CNN’s affiliate WABC saying they were friends. “he told me ‘I will be back soon’ and I replied ‘this is not your Job’ then he answered ‘I just want these kids know when sky opens up I am gonna tell them, like one minute.’ Then I said ‘No’” she narrated.
Despite waiting for fifteen minutes and making three unsuccessful calls to Dispoto, Fussell arrived back on the sand only to find him unconsciousness.
Immediately emergency responders started giving CPR to Dispoto after which they took him to a nearby hospital where later he died. The police official Andrew Casole confirmed that death of dispensato was caused by an accident of being struck by lightening.
Afterwards, Seaside Park installed a lightning warning system named Strike Guard Lightning Detection System which had been planned for and bought at nearly $50k this April.
The Seaside Park Borough Administrator Karen Kroon confirmed that the system was scheduled for installation on Wednesday and it detects both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning strikes within a user-defined radius of up 20 miles.
She stressed that this installation is not in reaction to the recent tragedy but rather a proactive step towards public safety while also enabling residents and tourists alike get alerts on potential hazards in their midst.
Between 2006 and now there have been 16 deaths related with lightning strikes five of which occurred at beaches including one involving lifeguard in South Seaside Park in 2021
Fussell also told WABC reporters that her boyfriend Dispoto was compassionate and always there to ease others’ burdens, she wants people to remember him in that way. “So, his last act of heroism was his ultimate, and that’s my Patrick Dispoto,” she said expressing the essence of his selflessness and how it touched many lives.
