"This photograph was taken by local resident Tony O'Rahilly on 19 November, 1995, as Wem Town Hall, Shropshire, England, burned to the ground. When O'Rahilly took the photo, neither he, nor other onlookers, saw the little girl in the doorway. The picture was taken with a 200mm lens from across the road because O'Rahilly and other onlookers were prevented by police and fire personnel from approaching the burning structure.
After the image was developed, O'Rahilly submitted it to the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena. They, in turn, sent the picture and the negative to photographic expert Dr. Vernon Harrison, former president of the Royal Photographic Society. Dr. Harrison analyzed the print and negative and reported that he was satisfied that the picture is genuine. "The negative is a straight forward piece of black-&-white work and shows no sign of having been tampered with," said Harrison.
A fire ravaged the town hall once before, in 1677. The historical record indicates that the 1677 fire was caused by a young girl, Jane Churm, who was careless with a candle. In later years, Churm's ghost was reputed to haunt the town hall.
Skeptics, including Dr. Harrison, have claimed the child is nothing more than the convenient arrangement of smoke, flame, light, and shadow at the moment of exposure. But what are the odds of smoke, flame, light, and shadow randomly forming the shape of a girl in the doorway of a building allegedly haunted by a girl, at the very moment a photographer took this picture? The odds must be at least ten billion to one-- as high as the odds of having captured a real ghost on film. "
