This month marks the 50th anniversary of the deadly Barry Building explosion in North Bay that claimed the lives of nine people and injured 23 others, many of them passersby on the street.
The explosion took place on the afternoon of January 8, 1975.
In terms of lives lost, it is second only to the number of people killed not on land, but on water many, many years earlier.
In 1893, there was considerable loss of life when fire swept through the John B. Fraser as the steamship made its way across Lake Nipissing on its final trip of the season. The ship’s wreck wasn’t found until 1972.
On the day of the Barry Building explosion, staff at the dental and optometrists’ offices were going about their daily routines, as patients filtered in and out of the building attending appointments, unaware of the tragic events that would unfold that very afternoon. The building also housed a basement apartment.
The youngest victim that day was just 15 years old, waiting for a routine eye examination.
The lives of those lost and those of the survivors were honoured during a ceremony in May of 2018, when a heritage plaque was unveiled on the building site at 122 McIntyre Street West, just down from the parking garage. Erected through the Municipal Heritage Committee-Historic Site Recognition Project, the plaque details the events of the day.
“On this site in 1975, an accident during routine excavation led to the biggest single tragedy and loss of life in North Bay’s history (on land). In the afternoon of January 8, a five-man crew from the gas company working next door using a backhoe unearthed a charged natural gas line connected to a recently demolished house. Unbeknownst to the crew, the backhoe inadvertently disconnected the main line from a feeder line, sending fumes through weeping tiles and into the Barry Building,” reads the plaque.
On that fateful Wednesday afternoon, a total of 19 people were in the building. Many others were on the streets outside going about their business, travelling to and from the busy law office next door, and the hardware store across the street or simply passing by.
It was determined that the first hint of a problem came shortly after two o’clock when the “pungent” odour of rotten eggs was noticed inside the building. The gas crew was notified about the odour filling the building, which led to at least one employee complaining about feeling nauseous.
“Reassured by the gas company crew that there was no danger even though they did not have a gas detector with them, the people in the building went about their activities even as the smell of gas got stronger,” the plaque explains.
It was around 3:30 p.m. when the Barry Building was rocked by a deadly explosion that lifted the building’s roof five feet into the air. The heat was said to have been so intense that it melted a police car.
Eight people died at the scene, while a ninth victim died roughly two weeks later in hospital, on the very day she was to be released.
The unveiling of the historic plaque in 2018 was witnessed by some of the survivors and family members who lost a loved one. Emergency responders were also in attendance, representing those who rushed to the scene on that tragic day to deal with the carnage.
Many personal stories were exchanged during the unveiling ceremony including acts of heroism.
Rose Ann Field, who was working in the building got caught up in the explosion and became trapped beneath the rubble. She shared her story with BayToday at the unveiling in 2018.
“I began to crawl to where there was some light when all of a sudden somebody pulled me out. Today, all these years later, I found out who it was. It was Victor McClenaghan. He came over to me today and said ‘You look familiar. I’m the one who pulled you out of the explosion.’ I never knew that until today.”
At the time of the explosion, McClenaghan was the city's only Forensic Identification Officer. McClenaghan was put in charge of the Barry Building investigation.
“It was very gruesome, but he was a very detail-oriented type. He took all these notes and worked very, very closely with the Coroner, attending meetings in Toronto,” shared Peter Handley, who at the time of the unveiling served as chair of the Municipal Heritage Committee.
The tragedy led to several investigations and a coroner’s inquest resulting in changes to provincial procedures when it comes to detecting and handling natural gas.
Years later, Handley would go on to interview McClenaghan at great length about the explosion. “It was just a combination of circumstances that led to the explosion and ultimately led, after a coroner’s inquest to changed provincial regulations.
” During the investigation, it came to light that the proper tools weren't readily available.
“They didn’t have the screwdrivers, to close the split. It took them 45 minutes to get the equipment to do it. They knew they couldn’t do anything with the gas until they got the equipment to close off the line itself,” shared Handley. “Now I think they’ve changed the regulations on that. There were a lot of other changes made. You couldn’t use an ordinary screwdriver to shut the supply of gas off. They had to have a specialized tool to do it. And now you don’t just send somebody out in a field and start digging with a backhoe.”
One important lesson learned was to call before you dig. At the end of the day, the number of injuries and casualties could have been much worse.
“Apparently there was a bus passing just before this happened, and if it happened when the bus was passing by, there could have been a lot more people injured or killed,” Handley noted.
Handley, who did a lot of research for the plaque, praised the efforts of all the emergency personnel who attended that day. “It was remarkable how the police department, right across the road, and the fire department took a very short amount of time before they were there as well.
Witnesses recalled how the force of the explosion tossed a chair straight through a window of a building across the street, and how a rug ended up on the roof of the parking authority.
The plaque serves as a permanent reminder of this catastrophic event in North Bay's history. Handley said committee members weren’t sure how the public would react to the installation. “When we decided we wanted to do it, we didn’t know what the reaction would be, but we went ahead and did it. One person told me, ‘We’re really grateful. It was about time the city did something.’ And of course, there was really no way the city could have done anything until our program came along.”
Handley says it is a story that needs to be told. A retired radio sports broadcaster, Handley has conducted thousands of interviews on a wide variety of topics dating back to the early '70s. The Barry Building explosion is one story, along with countless others included in a soon-to-be-released book focusing on the history of North Bay as authored by Handley called Vis a Vis-North Bay in Deed and Tale.
