Firefighters share stories of the paranormal (the occult museum)
Our firehouse isn’t haunted, at least not on a regular basis, but one of our engines is.
Two examples I have personally seen and experienced are; first, we were responding to a call in a dark, secluded, industrial area one night when the engine suddenly sputtered, stalled, and coasted to a stop right in front of a railroad crossing with no gates. Just as we stopped, a freight train came through. The engine started right up and ran fine after the train passed.
The second example happened one blazing hot summer afternoon when we were called to a highway construction site for a burning shanty. We pulled up and began advancing the handline when it suddenly seemed like the hose became tangled up in the hose bed. We went back to the engine to check, and just then the shanty blew up into thousands of tiny pieces. There were NO tangles in the hose, and it wasn’t caught or hung up anywhere.
Mr. Jones
Our fire department is haunted by a man named Mr. Jones. The story dates back many years before we built a new station. Mr. Jones died at the old firehouse from a heart attack after battling a house fire.
A chief told me a story once: ‘I went to the restroom which was off the hallway. On my way in, I sat my brand new pack of cigarettes on the file cabinet outside of the doorway. When I came out, the cigarettes were lined end-to-end down the hallway.’
Another firefighter about a year later also had a ‘Mr. Jones Experience.’ He and another guy were watching TV one night when the clock above the TV flew off the wall, landed in the center of the room, spun around a few times, then landed on a bookshelf.
All of the ‘haunted firehouse’ stories never really had me believing until Mr. Jones gave me a story of my own. I have this thing about open shower curtains. I notice when they are open and I have to close them. I had walked into the restroom to clean it but forgot a trash bag. The shower curtain was open. When I walked back in, about 30 seconds later, the curtain was closed. That is the only story that is personal. Other than that, we have doors that open and close by themselves, lights that go on and off, stuff like that. So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
“You F** Him Off Now”
There was a fire about 6-7yrs ago. The call was weird from the start, the 1st due engine didn’t want to start (it was out on a run bout 20mins before) they get there, the house was fully involved. When they got there, the fire was burning in strange ways… at one point flames were shooting out a window, and taking a ninety degree turn upward.
The investigator pictures show the face of the devil in the smoke and flames. I know it sounds BS, but I have seen a few of these pics, and have talked with some of the investigators. They were saying that the basement was rocking when they went back the next day it looked as though nothing burned downstairs.
The weirdest part of the fire was the 911 call. The dispatcher said the caller’s wife was in the background screaming, “you f**ked him off now, look he’s gone and burned the place down”. These people were said to have been Satan worshipers, everyone in the Dept. is afraid to even go on that road for calls. Incidentally, the name of the road is “Angel Hill” hmmm, pretty weird.
The Station in The Woods
Back at my old department before I moved to my current one I was assigned to the farthest southern station by myself with a single engine. The area was in a heavily wooded area of the district. At night it got extremely dark in that area, more so than the other areas of the dist. There were a lot of one lane dirt and paved roads as well as a few meth labs, and no police coverage.
I had had several occasions that I would hear dogs barking at a house near the station, and hear sounds outside the station like thumping noises, usually after 1 AM. I would go outside to look and no one would be there. These noises went on for about a week. Once I had a friend from another station come down to visit me but I was gone, he got scared off when he heard five loud bangs on the wall near the kitchen, of course, he failed to tell me this. Another night I was in bed and saw a shadow outside my window walking in the flower bed. The shadow passed my window and then the person kicked the door near the bay. I crawled out of bed and called 911, while I was on the phone the person busted out the bedroom window, half scared sh*tless I ran to the engine and bailed north to another station with a higher staffing level. The PD responded and 45 minutes later searched and deemed the station safe.
I soon after moved from that station and it is no longer staffed even now 3 years later. I found out from a B/C later on that a previous FF had been attacked in the parking lot washing an engine, and that the station had had several other weird occurrences happen since it was built.
The Fortune Teller
My firehouse has had a run of strange happenings over the years also. Many of us have actually seen a misty figure move through the rec room and out to the apparatus room. Some of the crews have seen the figure together, others have seen him when they were by themselves. The usual doors swinging, chairs moving upstairs, people walking across the floor or up and down the stairs happens occasionally.
The really scary part was when a friend of a friend stopped by the firehouse with her kids for a tour. This woman practices tarot card readings, fortune telling and the like. She had never been in the firehouse before and had never known about any of the instances in the firehouse. After the tour, she asked me if the firehouse had “guest appearances” often. I thought she meant the kids and said that we often have children take tours of the place. She corrected herself and asked if we had ever seen ghosts, I said, maybe-I’m not sure. She described our misty figure from head to toe exactly as he appears and said she had seen him. Do I believe, probably not much more than I had before that day but I don’t doubt anything.
Standing Behind Me
This story takes place in Fayetteville, NC and the department I used to work for there. When I was assigned to Engine 2, I had heard all kinds of stories of it being haunted. Footsteps, doors opening, writing on the wall, and even a sighting are all the things I was told about.
I heard some things once in a while but the one time I was really spooked happened in late 2000. I was lying in bed, about 2 am when I heard footsteps approach my bunk and stop behind me, between my bed and the wall. The first thing I thought was that I had slept through a call but then I saw that my LT was still asleep and I noticed the radio was quiet. I could feel someone standing beside the bed and as much as I didn’t want to I slowly turned and looked to find that there was no one there.
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Unexplained handprints, opening doors, voices and encounters plague the firefighters in these haunted fire stations.
1. THE GHOST AT BUTTE COUNTY FIRE STATION 55 IN BANGOR, CALIF.
Firefighters at this historical firehouse claim this place is haunted. Some attribute it to the “sagging walls” and “passing wind” creating the illusion of the ghost, but many people who have been there for years say there is definitely a ghost inhabiting the station.
Station 55 is an old decrepit combo of buildings that go all the way back to the Gold Rush, and have been remodeled into one building as the current fire station, according to Phantoms and Monsters.
Crew members say they have all encountered the ghost, who reportedly doesn’t like it when some doors of the station are closed.
“All of the people (at the station) have experienced at one time or another. It just happens. You just work with it,” Captain Scott McLean said. He’s been at the station for almost 10 years.
Captain McLean said that things are often moved unexplainably, and the ghost would even pull engines’ ignition wires on a regular basis. Even the station dog that used to be there would be freaked out by the believed apparition.
Not much is known about the ghost – if it’s a boy or a girl, a child or an adult, but many believe in it, even initial non-believers.
Firefighter Anthony Brown was one such non-believer who was sleeping at the station when he suddenly felt “pinned down” by something. He tried calling out for help but wasn’t able to.
“Then I felt this blast of wind for 20 or 30 seconds, and then it passed. I was able to get up … and turned on every light possible,” he said.
Others have had similar experiences with the “ghost.”
Some speculate the ghost is a past city mayor or sheriff, or a woman who may have been involved in one of their murders.
2. THE HANDPRINT OF FRANK LEAVY
Firefighter Frank Leavy reported working at Chicago Fire Department Engine Co. 107, Truck Co. 12 for his daily routine of cleaning.
Chicago Hauntings says that the story started out on Good Friday, 1924, and the typically jovial Leavy seemed out of touch and distant. His fellow firefighters didn’t know what was wrong.
The husband and father of two went on with his duties, cleaning and listening to the telegraph when they heard of a four-alarm fire. Their station was too far away to respond, yet Leavy felt worried.
He put his hand against the window he was cleaning and made a grim prophecy: “This is the last day on the fire department.”
No one really knew what to say but were interrupted when they were called to respond to the four-alarm. The other stations closer to the blaze were already overwhelmed by another fire.
The firefighters arrived at the burning building, going into the building to fight the blaze. With no breathing apparatus, they had to crawl back and forth to the window to get air.
Crews fought the fire for half an hour, with no progress. Suddenly their commanders started yelling at them to evacuate, but it was too late.
Eight bodies were found, one of them Leavy’s. His chest was crushed by the wreckage, but his body intact.
When firefighters returned to the station, they noticed that Leavy’s handprint was still there.
Despite repeated attempts to clean off the handprint, no one could, not even window cleaners who used harsh chemicals.
A coroner came by and compared a fingerprint from Leavy to the handprint.
A complete match.
On the anniversary of Leavy’s death, 20 years later, a paperboy accidentally broke the window while delivering the newspaper, making it impossible to confirm how or why the print stayed for so long.
Some say a chemical produced by Leavy’s pancreas caused the print to stay that long, but no one knows for sure.
3. GHOST STORIES OF FIRE STATION 3
In the video below, hear stories of from firefighters of the supposedly haunted Fort Lauderdale Fire Station, also known as Historic Fire Station #3.
Lore has it that the station is haunted by several spirits, one of which is supposedly Firefighter Robert Leeland Knight who died two days after Christmas in 1940 on his second week at the station.
Firefighters at the station say they can hear voices through the intercom system or feel cold breezes on the back of their necks.
Some also say spirits from the nearby Indian burial ground or victims of lynchings that occurred near the firehouse.
4. SUNSHINE FIRE STATION IN AUSTRALIA
In 1974, Firefighter John Laverick was working with his crew at the Sunshine Fire Station. While going through drills, when the doors to the engine bay opened as if someone was coming in.
The firefighters decided to cut the drills short after that, according to Castle of Spirits. Crews had long-heard mysterious footsteps walking all around the firehouse, but this was the first time a door had opened all on its own.
A firefighter was in the firehouse alone when he saw the same doors open and slam shut again. He went out to investigate but found no one. He then got a call on the intercom, but when he got no response back, he went to where the call was coming from, and no one was there. He claimed he was completely alone there.
Another firefighter, Charlie McDonald said he was on duty at the station when an unbearably heavy weight pushed him down and pinned his arms to his side. He said the pain was so intense that he thought he was having a heart attack.
Suddenly, the weight lifted and he could breathe again.
Crews there theorize the mysterious presence is that of a firefighter who hung himself at the station during WWII.
The station has since been given to private owners, stopping all operation in 1987. The current owners though, still report hearing unexplained footsteps, odd human-shaped shadows with no one to cast it, and other strange noises.
A BOYD COUNTY, KY., FIRE STATION
Investigators from Huntington Paranormal checked out this approximately 25-year-old firehouse, where firefighters reported hearing children’s’ voices and banging when no children were present.
Firefighters also said they heard the sound of someone scraping their boot on the drainage grate, and one even said he was pushed by something invisible.
Other crew members say they have seen an apparition of a firefighter in a blue uniform sitting in one of the fire trucks.
Investigators reported feeling someone touch their elbows, others felt a sensation on their faces. All unexplained experiences took place in the bay, where the apparatus is parked. Several of the investigators also said they heard a woman’s voice.
While using devices to capture “electronic voice phenomenon” and asking for any spirits to give a sign of their presence, they heard a knocking.
Investigators, after going through their recordings found that they had captured a male voice and a child’s voice, who both seemed to respond when other firefighters asked questions aimed at the supposed spirits.
STEVE RAMSEY – OKOTOKS – ALBERTA
