Ruth Fussell wants her boyfriend, Patrick Dispoto, to be remembered as a hero. The 59-year-old man, described as a “lovable cowboy,” lost his life trying to warn children on the beach at the Jersey Shore of an impending storm. Dispoto, of Toms River, New Jersey, had just left the J Street Beach at Seaside Park in Ocean County, when he noticed storm clouds rolling in.
Although Fussell advised him not to go back outside, Dispoto was adamant about alerting the group of children still playing in the water. Minutes after he left the car, he was fatally struck by lightning.
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'I’m just going to warn these kids because the sky is going to open,' Dispoto told his girlfriend.
“He said, ‘I’ll be right back,’” Fussell told News 12 New Jersey, recounting the last interaction she had with her boyfriend about 7 p.m. June 23. She told him, “You have no business going back.”
But Dispoto was determined. “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,” she recalled.
After 15 minutes and three calls that went unanswered, Fussell went to find Dispoto, and New York Post reported.
'His last act of heroism was his ultimate,' Fussell said.
She found him face down in the sand. A stranger was standing over him, shouting for help, according to the Post. The children were nowhere in sight. The stranger’s wife began performing CPR on Dispoto. Later, he was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Although initially his cause of death was unknown, police later confirmed to NJ.com, that Dispoto had been struck by lightning. “His last act of heroism was his ultimate,” Fussell said. “And that’s my Patrick.”
A young man died after being struck by lightning in the same area three years ago.
This is not the first time this type of tragedy has occurred. Three years ago, Keith Pinto, a 19-year-old lifeguard, was fatally struck by lightning trying to warn visitors to get off the White Sands Beach in South Seaside Park, according to News 12.
Four other beachgoers were injured that day. Afterward, a section of the beach was named in Pinto’s honor.
A beach can be very dangerous during a thunderstorm.
In order to prevent any more of these types of tragedies, the city is installing an upgraded lightning detection system.
“In the event of a thunderstorm, the beach is a very dangerous place to be,” Seaside Park lifeguard captain Jim Rankin told News 12. “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.”
'We don't want to tell people when the storm is here, we want to tell people that the storm is coming,' the lifeguard captain said.
The idea is that the detection systems will alert people in enough time for them to vacate the 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,” Rankin said.
In the meantime, before the detection systems are available, Rankin advises that beachgoers frequently check radar apps, watching for clouds and follow warnings to leave the beach when they’re given.
