Heroic father, 59, is fatally struck by lightning after warning children to get off the beach – as his heartbroken girlfriend reveals his poignant last words

Tributes have poured in for a heroic beachgoer who was fatally struck by lightning as he warned children to flee an approaching storm.

Patrick Dispoto, 59, was leaving a New Jersey beach with his girlfriend on Sunday when the tragedy unfolded, after returning to the beach when he realized the lifeguards had left for the day.

“He said, ‘I’ll be right back,’” Dispoto’s friend Ruth Fussell told News12 New Jersey.

When the 59-year-old didn’t return, she found him lifeless on the beach, surrounded by witnesses who had seen him being struck by lightning.

Dispoto’s friend Ruth Fussell (pictured together) said she returned to the beach to find him lifeless on the shore before medics pronounced him dead at the hospital

Fussell spoke through tears as she recalled Patrick’s final moments, saying she even tried to convince him not to go back to help others left on the beach at Seaside Park in New Jersey.

“I said, ‘You don’t have to go back,’” she recalled.

“He says, ‘I’m just going to warn these kids, because the skies are opening up. I’m just going to warn these kids, one minute.’ I said no.’

After making sure she was safely in their car, Ruth said Patrick walked back to the beach to help children and families clean up before the storm hit.

But she said she called him three times with no answer and waited about 15 minutes before running to the beach to find Patrick on the ground with the children nowhere to be seen.

Ruth, along with other witnesses, began desperate resuscitation efforts, but Patrick was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

“The doctor said to unplug 45 minutes after the brain is deprived of oxygen,” she said. “I said, ‘No, that’s not possible.’

Fussell remembered her friend as a generous and selfless man, saying his “last act of heroism was his ultimate”

She paid tribute to her friend as a selfless and generous man who often helped others in need.

“His last heroic act was his ultimate, and that is my Patrick Dispoto,” she said.

Father of two Cole Dispoto told CBS New York that he was told his father died as a result of the lightning strike.

“I think there was a lightning strike not that far away, most likely hitting the sand. And sand conducts electricity very well,” he said.

“(The electricity) continued and his body was the first thing it hit.”

“My father was someone who always put others before himself,” his daughter added.

According to News12, the tragedy at Seaside Park beach comes as three lightning warning systems have been installed.

Dispoto’s two children paid tribute to their heroic father, as his daughter said her “father was someone who would always put others before himself.”

The tragedy at Seaside Park beach comes as three lightning warning systems have been installed to warn beachgoers of approaching thunderstorms

Dispoto’s death at Seaside Park beach comes three years after the death of lifeguard Keith Pinto, 19, who was struck by lightning while trying to help others off the beach.

The systems, approved in April, cover the entire 1.5 miles of coastline and send a warning to beachgoers to leave the area if lightning approaches.

Dispoto’s death on the beach at Seaside Park comes three years after the death of 19-year-old lifeguard Keith Pinto.

Pinto was struck by lightning while trying to help others off the beach, with four others also injured during a strike.

The 19-year-old now has a stretch of beach named in his honor.