And because it’s Halloween week:
Forty years ago this October two explosions at the Grain Elevators rocked North Vancouver. Four men later died in hospital from severe burns, while one man was trapped in the building—his body was never found. The fire caused $8 million in damages and destroyed the workhouse, track shed, and a large part of the shipping gallery in the former Moodyville area.
Sherri Hunt-Todd tells me she heard the explosions all the way at her house in the British Properties.
A story in the October 4, 1975 edition of the Province gave a graphic first-hand description from Barney Chapman an electrician who was there that day.
“There was a sharp explosion that must have shaken loose a lot of [grain] dust, and then came the big one—a great roar that went right through the building. I saw one man just outside who’d had his clothes ripped right off. Then others came staggering out of the building and even though I knew them all I couldn’t recognize some of them because of the dirt and burns.”
According to Robert Belyk’s Ghosts: true tales of eerie encounters, one 28-year-old man who was badly burned in the fire was taken to the VGH Burn Unit, where against all odds managed to survive for three months, before dying of his injuries.
Then for some reason, the young man decided to stick around his room #415.
Belyk’s excellent book gives a full account of the story and interviews nurses and patients who had strange encounters with the young ghost. Nurses would frequently hear breathing when no one was in the room, they would feel a presence, see an unexplained shape in the room, the toilet would flush, lights would go on and off, and the room was often freezing cold. Staff said that while it was unsettling, they never felt any danger. They also said that the ghost was kind to other burn patients. He would visit critically ill patients and bring them comfort.
The ghost stayed around the burn unit until staff moved to new facilities and the building was torn down.
Thanks to Sherri Hunt-Todd for letting me know about the explosion and to Bill Allman for telling me about the ghost story, to Robert Belyk, and to Chris Mizzoni’s terrific blog about Lower Lonsdale and where I found the photos.