{"id":330803,"date":"2026-07-06T15:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/330803\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T15:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:53:12","slug":"lightning-strike-turns-deadly-on-florida-beach-at-start-of-independence-day-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/330803\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning strike turns deadly on Florida beach at start of Independence Day weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AccuWeather.com\"<\/p>\n

Lightning flashes over a Florida beach. (Getty Images\/Pola Damonte)<\/p>\n

A lightning strike turned deadly as the Independence Day weekend got underway in Southwest Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crews were dispatched to Fort Myers Beach<\/a>, Florida, on Friday, July 3, after reports of a lightning strike in the area.<\/p>\n

“Upon arrival, crews found one individual unresponsive, and three others who had to be transported,” Fort Myers Beach Fire District<\/a> said in a post on Facebook. “A bystander had deployed an AED and was performing CPR upon our arrival, however due to the injuries sustained efforts were not successful.”<\/p>\n

The victim was later identified as 51-year-old Viktar Kiryk, who was swimming when the lightning strike happened, according to local news station WINK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Friday’s incident marked the third lightning-related fatality in the United States so far this year, according to the National Lightning Safety Council. It was also the second reported in Florida in 2026.<\/p>\n

Since 2006, Florida has been the deadliest state for lightning strikes. The National Lightning Safety Council also says water-related activities, including swimming, are among the deadliest situations when thunderstorms are nearby.<\/p>\n

Beachgoers are urged to keep a close eye on the weather and move to shelter when a storm approaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lightning flashes over a Florida beach. (Getty Images\/Pola Damonte) A lightning strike turned deadly as the Independence Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,7734,30,29,1695,90029],"class_list":["post-330803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-beach","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-myers-beach","tag-lightning-strike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}