A New Brunswick lighthouse almost as old as Confederation has been destroyed by a fire.
The Saint John fire department says it was notified of the blaze at the lighthouse on the Saint John River in the city’s Green Head area around 10 p.m. Tuesday.
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Some residents were woken up as emergency crews arrived.
“I thought I was dreaming,” said Terry Mason, a resident of the area. “Lights going on the ceiling and I come out and look out the bathroom window and all the fire trucks and everything were here.”
Division chief Mark Wilson says the site is remote and required firefighters to trek into the woods on foot with their gear for a couple kilometres.
He says by the time officials arrived on scene, the lighthouse had collapsed.
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Matt Dupuis, who travelled to the site on his ATV, called the destruction of the lighthouse a rotten shame.
“It’s a lovely spot,” Dupuis said. “Go up and just take a peek, take a breath, look over. But that’s gone now”.
Mason says the lighthouse wasn’t just popular among locals.
“I had a guy last year from Minnesota. He came here just to go through all the lighthouses in Atlantic Canada,” he said.
Wilson says the cause of the fire is under investigation.
The website lighthousefriends.com says the Swift Point lighthouse – also known as the Green Head lighthouse – was one of six beacons erected in 1869 along the Saint John River between Fredericton and Saint John.
— With files from Andrew Cromwell, Global News