FORT MYERS, Fla. (WSVN) \u2014 Witnesses who were at a Fort Myers beach shared their story after a lightning strike left one person dead and three hospitalized.<\/p>\n
The storm moved in around 2 p.m., with witness Riley Russeau sharing her story.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started getting dark on either side, everyone started packing up slowly,\u201d said Russeau.<\/p>\n
Mary Hack saw and heard the strike happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look that bad out so you think you can stay a little longer but we were tracking it on our phone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Doppler radar showed a lighting strike at 2:18 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was inside the condo, near the window, and it was a big bolt,\u201d said Hack.<\/p>\n
Bystanders at the beach rushed to rescue the swimmers and performed CPR before paramedics arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I went running up the beach. He was laying near the water. There was already a paramedic doing CPR. There was already a nurse doing CPR. They had the AED connected, but he did not have a shockable rhythm, so you just keep doing CPR,\u201d said a witness.<\/p>\n
Russeau returned to see hysteria on the beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were gone for maybe 45 minutes and by the time we got back down here there was a whole thing set up, beach cleared out. Emergency trucks on the beach,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
First responders said a man died from the lightning strike and three others were injured and taken to the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sad. No one wants to come to the beach and have that happen, so you never expect that something like that is going to happen,\u201d said Russeau. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to prepare for a tragedy like that but you have to be aware of what\u2019s going on at the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Firefighters warned people to stay out of the water during stormy weather.<\/p>\n
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