This archive report was first published on 31 August 2021.
Jersey Shore Lifeguard Killed in Lightning Strike ¶
A 19-year-old lifeguard was killed and at least seven others injured in a lightning strike on a New Jersey beach on August 30, 2021.
Keith Pinto, a 19-year-old lifeguard from Toms River, New Jersey, was fatally injured by a lightning strike at White Sands Beach in South Seaside Park around 4:35 p.m. on August 30, 2021. Pinto died from his injuries on the beach, while the other victims, four of whom were lifeguards, were treated at nearby hospitals.
According to Debbie Winogracki, communications director for Berkeley Township, Pinto had been working as a lifeguard for the past four years. Winogracki remembered him as a well-liked community member who took his job seriously.
"He was just a nice kid — I call him a kid, but he was a young man," Winogracki said. "He exuded those leadership qualities you want in a person."
On Tuesday afternoon, a memorial for Pinto had formed on the beach, with several bouquets and T-shirts draped over a lifeguard stand resting on its side in the sand. People gathered in front of the memorial, crying and hugging each other tightly.
Christine Gailey-Glenn, 51, was sitting on the beach with her family about 200 feet from the lifeguard stand when the lightning strike occurred. "It was like a bomb," Gailey-Glenn said. "I felt this excruciating pain in my head, and crackling."
She said she fell on her knees and lost consciousness for several seconds. When she came to, her husband was shouting for them to leave, she said. Her son, sister, and cousin had all been hit by residual lightning, the electrical energy that spreads outward from a direct lightning strike.
"I felt the electricity go through my legs like a current," said Traci Zalinski, 50, Gailey-Glenn's cousin.
Mayor Carmen Amato of Berkeley Township called it a "tragic" and "heartbreaking" day for the Jersey Shore. "This young person was out there every day protecting the lives of others," Amato said in a statement. "Our lifeguard teams, like so many along the shore, develop special connections with our community throughout the summer, which makes this loss even greater."
Before the lightning strike, Gailey-Glenn and Zalinski said they would have ignored storm warnings on the beach, a decision they now say they would never make again.
The cousins still have some lingering anxiety, but they said they were determined to return to the beach on Tuesday to see the lifeguard stand and participate in Pinto's vigil.
