N.S. family continues lighthouse-keeping legacy [Video]

Gerald LeBlanc can still smell the kerosene his father Fred used to use to light the River Bourgeois (Inlet) Lighthouse.

“Every time I go in there I think, ‘Oh, here comes the smell of kerosene,’ you know?” says LeBlanc.

The 67-year-old may have retired from his career as a carpenter, but in Cape Breton’s Richmond County, he still works as a lighthouse keeper, checking the small lighthouse down the road from his home every three months. It’s a tradition and a job his father had.

“He started lighting that lighthouse in 1952,” recalls LeBlanc. “He did it for 17 years, and then Nova Scotia Power put the power to it in 1969.”

Lighting the way

The lighthouse sits on the inlet where the Atlantic Ocean meets River Bourgeois.

It’s an exact replica of the original lighthouse which began operations in 1903 and fell into disrepair by 1989. The Coast Guard burned down the 27-feet (8.2 metres) tapered …