Struck By Lightning.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 25 September 1913, Page 4

Struck By Lightning.

A_ EXCITEMENT AT CAPE iOULWLN D LIGIITIiUUSE. An exciting and decidedly unenviable experience befell the residents at Cape Foulwind on the evening of September 4th (says a correspondent of a southern paper) when the lighthouse and the adjoining building were struck by i lightning and considerably damaged, the inmates escaping without injury. Shortly after sunset it was seen that a storm was coming up from the west, and by midnight it was raging, with flashes of forked lightning and heavy peals of thunder. Just before i a.m. the storm burst in full violence, and the principal keeper (Mr Maelvor), who uas on duty in the tower, had an unpleasant time. One very vivid flash of lightning struck the telephone wires just outside his dwelling, and the wires took the current into the house, where it pinyed havoc. The front door was smashed to pieces, and a barograph in ('he porch was ruined. The inner door of the porch was torn from its hinges and a fanlight and a window were broken. The insulated wires of the telephone fused, and a sheet of flame broke out for the whole distance of the wires through the house. MrsMaclvor, who was alone in the house, managed to put the lire out, but the electricity ran along the telephone wires to the lighthouse, where it did more damage, finally running to earth at the as-.sislant-keeper's house. The inmates wen: startled by a loud explosion, and the room was filled with smoke from the burning paintwork. At the signal house, some fifty yards away, lightning also Hid considerable damage. It ran down an iron flagstaff and smashed the floor of the house, splintering many of the boards to matchwood. The internal fittings were broken up, ami the walls were burst*open at each corner from tioor to ceiling. 'rum* » .-