Just doing a bit of research for a site on the "Fairhaven" lake Lytham St Annes and came across this, by a Geoff Cunliffe
(The annual regattas went on and all sorts of funny things happened)In 1936, Lytham St.Annes Corporation stopped running its trams. They had the problem of getting rid of them so their bodies were taken to Fairhaven Lake and they were set up as a castle with girders and Hessian prior to them being set alight as part of the spectacular firework and bonfire display for the 1936 Regatta.
It was an extremely hot September afternoon but, to be sure these trams went up as the grand finale of the firework display, the Highways Department pumped petrol on to them all afternoon and you could see flammable vapours fuming off continuously.
Eight o’clock; the regatta was on, a flotilla of decorated boats had come past and the announcement was made that the Mayor will now set fire to the castle. The Mayor stepped forward with a flaming torch to start the fire and there was a tremendous explosion. The Mayor emerged from hospital five weeks later although the rest of the civic dignitaries who were further away were merely blown flat on their backs!
Everybody who had taken part in the carnival, in their full kit, jumped into the dinghies and paddled across from the landing stage to try to help. The girders in the former tram bodies were white hot with the heat whilst rockets were showering down everywhere. Next thing, there were ambulances screaming down the car park.
The blaze itself was a sensation, and my witness tells me that everyone else thoroughly enjoyed it!
Taken from
http://www.fairhavenlake.com/web/2010/11/15/the-1936-explosion/
