Harbor Island fire extinguished

SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Fire damaged a large wooden cistern but didn’t harm the historic buildings at the Lydia Ann Lighthouse on Harbor Island on Monday, June 15, a fire official said.

Contract workers were using a grinder to do some repairs to a cistern when a spark ignited the blaze about 11 a.m., said Scott Mack, chief of the Port Aransas Volunteer Fire Department.

The cistern stored about one-third of the drinking water on hand for the lighthouse caretakers.

Port Aransas firefighters began gearing up to load firefighting equipment onto a Coast Guard vessel to go fight the fire, but the effort was called off before they left shore because workers at the lighthouse put out the fire themselves, Mack said. They used fire extinguishers and a hose, he said.