Lepreau — After a long day yesterday, the Beams were looking forward to a silent night. But while all was very bright, it certainly was not calm.
At 7:36 p.m., Musquash Fire-Rescue Department responded to a house fire on the Beaver Brook Road in Lepreau. When the first truck arrived on the scene, the home was already an unrecognizable pile of burning rubble. A subsequent investigation revealed that the cause of the fire was a dangerously malfunctioning Christmas laser light projector.
“We had just settled down after supper,” said retired homeowner Ray Beam. “Before I started to watch the TV, I went to flick on the outdoor Christmas lights. This year we didn’t bother with any ladders, we got one of them new fancy laser light projectors at the Walmart. It was a pretty nifty contraption — the house looked like Star Wars! I loved it!
“Not long afterwards, I noticed the ceiling lights getting brighter and I saw sparks coming from the poles outside,” Beam recounted. “I don’t know what happened for sure, but as close as I can figure it must have been a massive power surge from Point Lepreau.” Point Lepreau Nuclear Power Generating Station is located about 10 kilometres from the site of the incident.
“Suddenly, these lasers start tearing through the house like the Death Star through Alderaan! Ellen and I hit the floor and crawled out the backdoor on our bellies. When we got out front, we could see the lasers from the projector slicing through the house like a lightsaber!”
Ellen Beam says that despite her husband’s love of sci-fi, she never thought laser-powered Christmas decorations was a good idea.
“When he brought that laser thing home, I was like, ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this,'” she said.