A little before 10:00 am on October 3, 1975, David Samson, an inspector with the Canadian Grain Commission, was walking down the tracks to the Burrard Terminals when he saw a few of the workers he knew moving quickly away from the grain elevators.
The full story is in Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.
“The side of the workhouse terminal had been blown off and I could see the stairs going all the way up to the top of the grain elevator,” he says. “There wasn’t any real blaze at that time, but that came in the next half hour.” A conveyor belt had caught fire and ignited the explosive grain dust in the elevator. Grain dust, it turns out, is about 35 times more explosive than TNT.
Ed Hooper was standing at the top of the elevator when the fire broke out and he grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. Samson thinks he must have been killed by the second explosion, because nothing of him was ever found.
The two explosions rocked North Vancouver
David Ferman, was on a Grade 4 field trip to the Olde Spaghetti Factory in Gastown. He told me: “I remember seeing a bright yellow light through the north window,” he says. “I thought something had blown up in Burrard Inlet or that a lightning bolt had hit a ship. Then came the sound—a muffled boom, and the yellow light became an orange fireball that blew outward towards us before quickly receding under grey clouds.”
Other men came staggering out of the elevator covered in dirt and burns. Sixteen men suffered severe burns and four later died in hospital. They were Hoey 58, John Scully 56, James Evoy, 42, and 28-year-old Dave Brown.
“The workhouse was made of wood, so eventually the whole thing caught fire,” says Samson. “Mel Hoey was standing on the grate when the explosion took place. He had these big heavy work boots on and all the other clothes that he was wearing were burned right off.”
Burn wing:
Dave Brown was taken to the burn unit at Vancouver General Hospital, where against all odds, he managed to survive for 58 days, before dying of his injuries. Then, for some reason, the young man decided to stick around in his room—#415.
In 1989, Robert Belyk researched the story as part of his book Ghosts: True Tales of Eerie Encounters. Although 11 years had passed, Belyk was able to find two nurses and a patient who had experienced strange encounters with Brown’s ghost.
Staff told Belyk that they heard 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 in 1983 and the building was torn down two years later.
For more ghostly stories check out these podcast episodes:
S1 E9 Three Ghost Stories and a Murder
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29 comments on “The Grain Elevators, a Fire and a Ghost Story:”
Eve……Thanks for the poignant and refreshing story about the burn patient in RM #415, of the old Burn Unit at VGH……proof that not all spiritual encounters are horrifying…….
Would that have been in the old Willow Pavilion of VGH ? I did my Infectious Diseases training there .There were always burn victims there due to the isolation protocols . It was a very scary place for a young 18 yr old .
That’s a really good question Heather, it sounds like it could have been. It was 1975/1976 – when did you do your training?
!9561 /62 I believe . As a new student I recall relieving a nurse for her lunch break. . Her pt was a man who fell into a bonfire . He was tied onto a ‘ Stricker Frame ‘. It was both sad & frightening . The poor man did not survive .
The Burn unit was in the Fairview pavilion. FP4. It was on the opposite side of the Heather Street from the rest of the hospital and next to the Nurses residence.
I was working in the Burn Unit then.
The burn unit was at Fairview Pavilion. I helped with the move.
Yes, it’s kind of a feel good ghost story – but I don’t think it was a great experience for staff at the hospital
I was one of the nurses in the Burn Unit when the explosion happened. I came to work for the night duty and did not know about the explosion until coming to work. Stretchers were all over the corridor.
I worked there the whole time when the young man was alive. Actually, I do not remember the details, but I remember a few died, one 90% burned.
I never knew about the ghost, or experienced anything about the ghost, unless I have forgotten. We moved to the other buildings. End of the chost story.
We are asked to write some experiences from the Burn unit and I will mention this.
My uncle Ron survived the Grain terminal explosion/fire. Many thanks Lisa Rowat and all the Burn unit staff. http://vancouversunandprovince.remembering.ca/obituary/ronald-bird-1065862682
I’m so glad!
You are welcome, Cathy. Your uncle Ron and all others were brave men. First surviving the accident and secondly all the painful burn treatments those days. Many, many years later the burn treatments became so much more sofisticated and pain free. They went home in much shorter time. And after burn scar managements were much better.
Ron must have been a young man then. Sorry that he passed away still so young.
I was the student X-Ray tech who was working that night. Did many a follow-up chest X-Ray on the young man. Bless him. I was told he had gone in to rescue his work mate. I remember the chaos. So many at once. Something that has stayed in my mind all these years.
There was also a prisoner ward in Fairview pavilion and the building was allegedly haunted before the burn victim showed up.
Next to Fairview Pavilion was the VGH Residence. That building was allegedly haunted by more than one ghost and there was quite a paranormal event in that building around 1995 that involved hospital staff, vcp and ehs. I read reports about the incident and debriefed staff involved.
Thanks Larry this is fascinating! Sounds like I need to do a lot more investigating.
I worked at VGH from 1983 to 1996 in a department called Safety Services . I never saw anything unusual while I was there. However some of my co workers did. Something interesting to note is that all of the unusual occurrences that took place, occurred in buildings on the south side of 12th avenue and not the north side.
I was only 10 years old but I remember the day well. My schoolmates and I were on a field trip to Gastown and it was pouring with rain. Lunch, of course, was the highlight and we were loud and probably a bit rowdy when we got in to the Olde Spaghetti Factory on Water Street. As we walked to our table I remember see a bright yellow light through the north window. A few of us pointed; I thought something had blown up on a ship in Burrard Inlet or that a lightning bold had hit a ship. Then came the sound, a muffled boom, and the yellow light became an orange fireball that blew outward toward us before quickly receding under grey clouds.
Everyone was quiet for a bit, but being 4th graders, the sense of awe and the silence only lasted a couple of seconds.
It wasn’t until we were back snug and dry in our North Van school that we heard that lives had been lost.
That’s an amazing story David–it must have been quite the explosion for you to remember it that clearly. Thanks so much for the first-hand description.
I was working for the Canadian Grain Commission at that time which was a federal
government inspection agency. I was working at Saskatchewan wheat pool which was
next store to Burrard grain elevator that morning. I new all of the worker’s who were
killed or injured and the apparent cause of the explosions. If you are interested in more
information you can email me and I will give you my phone No.
PS It was my daughter who brought your interest to me.
Thanks
David Samson
Thanks so much David – I’ll be in touch!
Fascinating story. Grain dust can be highly explosive. About 1988 I was on site for about three weeks doing construction costing analysis for the concrete and steel throughout the complex. Met a number of wonderful men who suffered and survived the explosion. I can’t remember the name of the fellow who was ‘vapourized’ but the employees I met would tell me that when someting breaks down now it is ‘his name’ playing tricks on them.
In Memory of my Uncle Ron….
He survived this horrific fire, barely.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theprovince/obituary.aspx?n=ronald-edward-bird&pid=3506439&fhid=5849
I remember Dave Brown – I knew him for 58 days.He loved his girlfriend – I think she lived in Squamish. He was always upbeat, encouraging, friendly & happy that she would be showing up later to spoon feed him since his hands were bandaged. He never worried or complained- most of those patients did not whine nor complain , strangely, – but he had 100% confidence that he would survive & go home to his girlfriend again. He was almost there when he tragically died after a final surgery. He never expected it & he could not alert anyone that he was in trouble. After he died he gave us so many clues & warnings to prevent this loss happening again.Room 415 was right next to the nurses’ desk. It was specifically used for postop patients during critical 24 hour period. His alarm bells rang when no one was in the room. The alarms were r/t the thermostat postop. Other details explained the whole mystery but I will leave them with Dave. His spirit was all positive & he maintained that attitude after death. Ghosts come to deliver important messages. He was very special during a period of intense stress on the burn unit. His fellow victims and their families all supported the nurses and were an inspiration for us all.
Thank you for this!
On a somewhat similar note, I was doing some electrical work in one of the very tall cylindrical grain silos at that place. To be able to install some conduit inside the top, the whole silo had to be filled with grain within six feet of the inside top. With apprehension, I and a partner took a step on the grain and it held us. While I was drilling into the concrete wall, I noticed a lot of fine grain dust in the air. That is when I realized that it would only take a spark to ignite a fireball inside. We altered our work approach to suit the environment there to create no sparks inside.
I often think of Coach Hooper, especially when I pass the grain elevators. I played soccer for him in the early 70’s, strangely we were the Firemen …
Interesting. My brother played for MacSween then and played against the Hoopers who were with Burdetts. I also knew some of the Scullys, one of whom was a mechanic at Lynn Valley Chevron. He had an older sister, Janet, who used to babysit my brother and I.
I remember that incident like yesterday. I was 8 years old at the time at Queen Marry elementary. We all heard the explosions and it shook the school.
Ed Hooper was a family friend of my parents Wally and Shirley Berg. My Dad was very active in North shore Soccer at that times me. As I remember the storyfrom my Dad, Ed did emerge from the initial fire with rescued workers. Ed wend back into the building as the secondary explosion happened and was not recovered. RIP Mr. Hooper. being 8 at the time, this event traumatized me. My Grandma lived at the Kiwanis Senior Residence on east second street and overlooked the grain elevators on low level road. The Saturday following the explosion the North Van Fire Department was still on scene. for months I could not look at the area because of the fire. I’m a Paramedic 35 years and have not been a structural firefighter. Respect and appreciation to all the men and women who serve our community in the fire service!
I can only imagine how traumatic this must have been for you! Thanks so much for posting this
[…] to reclaim 15 acres (6 hectares). Midland Pacific was first to locate on the fill and opened a grain elevator in 1928. The area known as Nob Hill was subdivided, war-time housing followed, and a housing […]