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Ghosts In The Line Of Duty: Firefighters / Firemen / Fire Stations

Mighty_Emperor

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LA JOYA
Ghost Helps Firefighters Put Out Blaze?



Reported by Ray Pedraza

JANUARY 27, 2004 - Is it a ghost or not?

La Joya firefighters believe they've caught one on camera and they say they'll keep believing that until someone proves them wrong.

Monday night, one of the firefighters shared the images exclusively with Action 4 News. La Joya Assistant Fire Chief Richard Flores isn't really afraid of ghost.

"Ah, it doesn't bother me, as long as he helps," says Flores, laughing.

In fact, a helpful ghost is what his crew believes they captured on camera at a tire shop fire, last week.

The tire shop is located at Moorefield Road and 7 mile line, in Hidalgo County.

"We had one of the firefighters taking pictures that night," explains Flores. "And when she took the picture she looked down at the back of the digital camera and it looked blurry and she thought she messed up."

But after printing the photos from a computer, it was a quite clear. The translucent image of a firefighter can be seen walking through rubble.

So was it simply a camera glitch or the paranormal?

"We started talking to people and they say digital cameras don't do that," says Flores. "Digital cameras will take pictures and then stop. They won't take pictures over ones that have already been taken."

And if it was indeed a ghost, he may have had some company, from another ghost.

Analyzing the picture closely, his wife points out a second image that closely resembles a man's face.

Asked about the second image, Flores says, "I can't place that one. The guy that really caught our eye is the one where you can see clear through him."

And before anyone claims they can see right through Flores on this one, he strongly denies altering the pictures on a computer.

"I'm not gonna be doctoring any pictures - I don't have time for that."

One thing is for certain, Flores has e-mailed the images to several neighboring fire departments and no one can seem to identify the mysterious firefighter.

"How it came about I wouldn't know. But there was a lot of firefighters out there that night and it was a pretty big fire. And I guess we had extra help."

Another puzzling detail is the fact that the unknown firefighter in the picture was wearing a blue hat. On the evening of the fire, everyone else was wearing black or white hats.

Flores says they'll continue asking to see if anyone can identify the firefighter. He feels, perhaps, it's the ghost of a fallen local hero.

It appears the main ghost is some kind of camera issue and the second one is just shapes in the shadows. I've attached the picture but it is a photo saved as a gif so there is a lot of artefacting but you can clearly see the main 'ghost' (to crunch the size down I have sved it as a .jpg - it won't improve the picture quality but it lets me attach it here - I'll see if I can find a better picture).

Emps
 
:hmm:

It is very easy to get that sort of effect when taking photos in low light levels. The information about no one recognising the figure and his hat being the wrong colour is more important than his transparency. I suppose they have checked that this wasn't an auxillary or a member of a different brigade.
 
A nice story from Queensland:

Firefighters on trail of ghost at Ipswich station

LOFTY the ghost has been the talk of Ipswich Fire Station for years and he is still making his presence felt.

Firies are known for being rational, no nonsense characters well versed in facing reality squarely in the eye.

So when the QT discovered many of the firefighters who have worked at the Waghorn St station have had some kind of encounter with Lofty, it was time to investigate.

After a series of strange noises, mysterious sightings and bizarre goings on, the firies themselves were also intrigued.

Ipswich firefighter Matthew Chadwick recently set up a trail camera in the gymnasium, where Lofty is said to hang out. The camera takes photos based on movement and has an infrared flash.

What came back were eerie, with one photo taken at midnight revealing a mysterious figure.

"Everyone will have their own interpretation, but to me it looks like a head with shoulders on it," Chadwick says.

"There are four photos and it moves across the screen from left to right."

Ipswich station officer Des Sardie has seen the photo and says "it looks like there is some sort of figure there".

"Lofty is not a nasty ghost at all, but the general consensus is that we do believe there is something going on here out of the ordinary.

"When you come out of our dorm you can look down into our kitchen and lounge area.

"One particular night several years ago it was 1.30am. I came out of my sleeping area to go to the toilet and I looked left and thought I saw one of the crew members up. I went into the lounge room to see who it was and there was no one there.

"Most of the firefighters that have worked here say they have felt or heard something.

"I'm not into the spirits. I'm on the fence. But sometimes you see something and do a double take and think 'What was that?'"

Bangs and clangs are often heard downstairs in the gymnasium, once the recreation room, where Sardie says "there is always an eerie feeling".

"It is pretty rare that I venture down there in the wee hours of the morning when it is all dark," he says.

The QT went on a tour of the station's dormitory, gymnasium and other nooks and crannies and there certainly is a feeling of uneasiness about the whole establishment.

Bundamba station officer Bruce Beasley says the old rec room is a place where "you'd always hear a bang or clang in the middle of the night and you'd go down there and couldn't see anything".

"There was always a rumour that Lofty used to walk around the station at night and check on everything to make sure it was all right, although I've never seen him," Beasley says.

So who is Lofty?

There is a theory that a person who once owned the land where the fire station now exists was unhappy about the station being built and has come back to haunt the firies.

The more commonly held view is that Lofty is a former firefighter who just can't get enough of the place. Sardie says "a lot of firemen have passed through this station...and some have passed away through illness or age".

"We've had firemen that have loved the place and wouldn't go home...so we've joked that maybe one or two of those firemen have come back and are back on shift with us," he says.

The firefighters will leave the station for good next week for their new base at Brassall.

"But we are hoping that Lofty stays here and looks after the place for us," Sardie says with a grin. "We'll move on to our new station - and maybe we'll get another Lofty there."
Ipswich Queensland Times

http://www.qt.com.au/news/firies-ghost- ... o/1970053/
 
Was wondering if anyone out there has any anecdotes / instances of haunted fire stations they could share. Reason I ask, is two fairly local stations are reputedly haunted - Market Deeping and Dogsthorpe, Peterborough.

Some years ago a photo was taken in the Deeping station which supposedly showed the ghost of a woman in a doorway ( despite living in Deeping, I've not been able to locate the photo, either online or anywhere else. The Peterborough station has the ghost of a gypsy woman. Both stations are relatively modern, and at least in the case of the Peterborough station it would seem that the haunting originates from before it was built.

My guess is that these are stories that are made up to scare or wind up new recruits - but would be interested to hear of any other examples.
 
I found this line unintentionally amusing: "At night, the toilet flushes despite everyone being in their beds. It seems as though the fire captain never felt he completed his duty . . . "

But the site in general is a good reminder of the risks firefighters face in order to protect the rest of us.
 
...in the case of the Peterborough station it would seem that the haunting originates from before it was built.

My guess is that these are stories that are made up to scare or wind up new recruits...

The 1885 25” to the mile OS map indicates that a private address known as Lawn House was the original structure on the site of Dogsthorpe Fire Station:

714A26BE-06BE-4846-BCE3-83D81D29D20F.jpeg


From another emergency service, l can attest that pranks are played on probationers.

maximus otter
 
I'm pretty sure that one of Oxford's old fire stations is reputed to be haunted. I'm almost certain that I've read a personal account concerning it in a book which I think is probably on my shelves - but it'll take a while to sort thought the jumble of my memory to pin down which one.
 
l’ve found a reference to the Deeping fire station ghost pic, but no actual pic:

“Victorian Lady

Location:
Market Deeping (Lincolnshire) - Fire Station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: A photograph taken of the crew outside the front of the station showed a woman in Victorian dress standing in the doorway. A second photograph taken moments later showed no such figure.”

https://www.paranormaldatabase.com/reports/999.php?pageNum_paradata=1&totalRows_paradata=73

maximus otter
 
l’ve found a reference to the Deeping fire station ghost pic, but no actual pic:

“Victorian Lady

Location:
Market Deeping (Lincolnshire) - Fire Station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: A photograph taken of the crew outside the front of the station showed a woman in Victorian dress standing in the doorway. A second photograph taken moments later showed no such figure.”

https://www.paranormaldatabase.com/reports/999.php?pageNum_paradata=1&totalRows_paradata=73

maximus otter

Without seeing the photograph in question, assuming it exists, it's difficult to see which doorway the ghost would have been standing in. Other than the door to the bay there's not a door at the front of the station. ( There is one set back down the left hand side but not sure you'd see it in any photo taken from the front ). Will likely walk past the station later, so will post a pick.

Incidentally, the same ( presumably) ghost of a woman has also been seen in the next door library.
 
Without seeing the photograph in question, assuming it exists, it's difficult to see which doorway the ghost would have been standing in. Other than the door to the bay there's not a door at the front of the station. ( There is one set back down the left hand side but not sure you'd see it in any photo taken from the front ). Will likely walk past the station later, so will post a pick.

Incidentally, the same ( presumably) ghost of a woman has also been seen in the next door library.

According to this, the photo was taken by a fireman in 1986 and the ghost was in the library doorway...

https://deepingslibrary.co.uk/history/
 
Photo of fire station...

Slight aside - where the heck is that? I used to live north on the A15 when there was no bypass, thus travelled through Market Deeping a lot, but I can't place it at all!

Also, @maximusotter, I like that the map you quote is old enough to locate Peterborough in Northamptonshire. Oh the good old days?
 
I'm pretty sure that one of Oxford's old fire stations is reputed to be haunted. I'm almost certain that I've read a personal account concerning it in a book which I think is probably on my shelves - but it'll take a while to sort thought the jumble of my memory to pin down which one.

Well, I was pretty sure that I'd read this in True Ghost Stories of Our Own Time, by Vivienne Rae-Ellis - one of my favourite collections of first hand accounts - but I've had a pretty thorough flick through and can't find anything. More rummaging called for, I think.

Just in case it might help ring bells (no pun intended) for someone else, I'm pretty sure it was a decommissioned fire station that had been converted into a pub or club. In fact, looking online, I think it might have been, quite literally, the Old Fire Station - on George Street in Oxford. It's now a community arts centre, but the story I'm thinking of was at a time when the building in question was a nightclub - which, according to its wiki page - the Old Fire Station was at some point.
 
Well, I was pretty sure that I'd read this in True Ghost Stories of Our Own Time, by Vivienne Rae-Ellis - one of my favourite collections of first hand accounts - but I've had a pretty thorough flick through and can't find anything. More rummaging called for, I think.

Just in case it might help ring bells (no pun intended) for someone else, I'm pretty sure it was a decommissioned fire station that had been converted into a pub or club. In fact, looking online, I think it might have been, quite literally, the Old Fire Station - on George Street in Oxford. It's now a community arts centre, but the story I'm thinking of was at a time when the building in question was a nightclub - which, according to its wiki page - the Old Fire Station was at some point.
Could well have been a 'Firkin' pub, popular in the 90's, they chose old fire and police stations etc for their premises, there was one in Portsmouth called 'The Fuzz & Firkin located in an old police station.

main-qimg-17c8c2c48a7f2ae0c9a056387a93c4ae.png
 
No. I'm pretty sure now that it was the Old Fire Station on George Street.

I'm actually even wondering if the story could have been in the IHTM section of the magazine; the stories in the Vivienne Rae-Ellis book are very similar in style and I've possibly conflated the two.

Wouldn't be the first time.
 
Could well have been a 'Firkin' pub, popular in the 90's, they chose old fire and police stations etc for their premises, there was one in Portsmouth called 'The Fuzz & Firkin located in an old police station.

View attachment 37186
Considering pubs are a good recipe for ghosts add Police station and fire stations you could get a nice collection of ghosties.
 
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