STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1858, 18 September 1913, Page 7

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

'DXCITEMENT AT CAPE FOTjLWINI) LIGHTHOUSE.

An exciting and decidedly unenviable befell .the ..residents; at,, Cape Foulwind lighthouse on the evening of September 4 (says a correspondent of a southern paper), when the lighthouse and the adjoining buildings were struck by lightning and considerably damaged, the inmates escaping without injury. Shortly after sunset it was seen that a Storm 'Was coming up from tho west, and'.by midnight it was raging, with flashes of forked' lightning and heav.v peals of thunder. i Just before 1 a.m. the storm burst in full violence, and the principal keoper, Mr. Maclvor, who was on duty' in the tower, had an unpleasant time. One very vivid flash of lightning struck the telephone wires just outside lijs dwelling, arid the wires took the current into the house, where it played havoc. The front door was smashed to pieces, and a barograph in the porch was ruined. The inner door of the porch was torn fro mits hinges and a fanlight and ■a window were broken. The insulated wires of the telephones fused, and a sheet of flame, broke out for the whole distance of the wires through the house. Mrs. Maclvor, who was alone in the house, managed to put the fire out,'bus the electricity ran along the telephone wires to the lighthouse, where it did more damage, finally running to earth at tho assistant-keeper's house. The inmates were startled by a loud explosion, and tho room was filled with smoke from burning paintwork. At tho. signal house, some fifty yards , jtway, lightning also did considerable '■"damage. . It ran down an iron flagstaff and smashed the floor of the house, splintering many of tho boards to matchwood. The internal fittings were broken up and the walls of tho house were hurst open at each corner from ffoor to ceiling.