The Barry Building Explosion

In 1975, a routine excavation beside the Barry Building in North Bay caused a charged natural gas line connected to a recently demolished house to be disconnected from a feeder line, sending gas through weeping tiles into the building at 122 McIntyre St W. On the busy afternoon of January 8, the building contained optometrists' and dentists' offices and a basement apartment, with 19 people inside and many others outside on the street. Shortly after 2 o'clock, people noticed the smell of gas, but after gas company workers reassured them there was no danger, they remained in the building as the fumes grew stronger. At 3:30, the gas ignited in a violent explosion that lifted the roof five feet and was followed within a minute by a fierce fire that trapped victims in the shattered structure. Police who had been training across the street, led by the immediate response of officers under Chief William Wotherspoon's eye, rushed into the burning building to rescue survivors, joined by other emergency responders and private citizens, while the fire department fought the blaze and the injured were taken to Cochrane Dunlop Hardware for triage. Eight people were killed outright, a ninth died in hospital more than two weeks later, and 23 others were injured, many of them passersby. Investigations and a coroner's inquest followed, producing recommendations for changes to provincial procedures when natural gas is detected and to the Natural Gas Manual. The disaster devastated that section of McIntyre St. W. and remains the biggest single tragedy and loss of life in North Bay's history.

Ontario · Canada