A man at a backyard barbecue was struck and killed Sunday by a tree limb that was knocked down by a flash storm, police said.
The 28-year-old man was attending a barbecue on Paulison Avenue in Passaic when he was hit, police said. He was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson.
Five other people sustained injuries of varying severity, but the other victims are expected to be OK, police said.
The sudden storm brought heavy winds and lightning to the area, causing a large tree limb to fall, police said. It was not immediately clear if the wind or a lightning strike took down the limb that killed the man.
“We saw the branch had fallen on top of the tent,” neighbor Johanna Juarez said. "I rushed over and I saw them take out the man and he was covered in blood."
The storm knocked down trees across New Jersey, including several large trees in Rutherford. One of those trees fell on a vehicle, but there were no reported injuries.
In Fair Lawn, trees were also knocked down, sprawled over train tracks and on to cars parked on streets.
