3-085-794 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lantern-room, Little Crosby Lighthouse, in which the fire originated, 1898. 'The great gale...summoned man's yet more formidable enemy, fire, to its reinforcement for the demolishing of Little Crosby Lighthouse, [near] Liverpool. The cause...is...[as yet] unknown, but the most natural explanation of the disaster is that the violence of the storm shattered the great lantern which has for so many years cast its...mirror-lights some twelve miles out to sea; and that the blowing in of the lantern led to the explosion of the lamps. The woodwork setting of the lights must then have caught fire, and the rapid spread of the flames downwards is ascribed to the dripping through of the burning oil from floor to floor...the strange torch-like appearance of the top of the lighthouse attracted the attention of the signalman on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway...[who] aroused the Hightown policeman...the constable...used every means in his power to arouse its inmates...but...was beaten back by the flames and smoke when he attempted to make his way further into the burning building...When the fire had burned itself out the next day a search was instituted which resulted in the finding of the charred remains of the occupants of the ruined lighthouse'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.