Dates in bold italics were fires lit by arsonists

June 6, 1952
Nelson Farmer’s Supply office and warehouse, Palm Dairies warehouse, and coal bunker of Towler Fuel and Transfer, Railway St. Damage $100,000 and loss of 80 tons of grain, flour, cereal, and dairy.

Sept. 2, 1952
Nelson Sash and Door Works, 907 Front Street.

Nov. 30, 1952
Simpson’s construction and R.A. Paterson Millwork Co., waterfront. $50,000 damage

May 27, 1955
Strathcona Hotel, corner Stanley and Victoria. Nelson’s deadliest fire. Six fatalaties: Harumi Shinmoto, 20; Gertrude Ellen Edey, 68; Quentin MacDonald, 44; John Thomas Price, 89; Margaret Helen Sinclair, 73; Rudolph (Rudy) Lawrence Emerson Symington, 10.

Paul Franck clung to the window ledge as smoke and screams filled the air.

“I could feel my fingers burning as I hung onto the hot cement sill three storeys above ground,” the 28-year-old typewriter repairman said. “To me it looked like the end of the world.”

It was 1 a.m. on May 27, 1955 as the 50 guests and permanent residents of the Strathcona Hotel awoke to the horrible realization their building was on fire.

“Staircases hung at crazy angles silhouetted against the raging inferno of fire licking at tarred siding and tinder dry woodwork,” the Daily News vividly recounted. “The occasional loud crash told of another wall falling and an eerie daylight glowed at the intersection of Stanley and Victoria.”

Some guests, like Franck, were left dangling from upper-storey windows.

“I made a dash for the window and slid out until I was just hanging by my fingertips,” he told the newspaper. “I remember screaming my lungs out, shouting for help. It was three storeys to the pavement. I didn’t relish the jump.”

He tried to get back inside, but couldn’t get past the smoke and flame. At last, he heard a fireman shout: “Don’t jump, we have a ladder.”

Franck hung on and emerged from Nelson’s worst blaze with only burned hands. Others weren’t as lucky: six people died that day, among them 10-year-old Rudy Symington whose family lost their Harrop home to fire only a few months earlier.

Four others went to hospital — including a father and son who did jump — and firefighter Jim Peck, who saved several lives while nearly losing his own.

“It was what I imagined hell must be like,” he said.

Another 40 people escaped without serious injury.

Greg Nesteroff, from a three-part series on the history of the Nelson Fire Department, written for The Nelson Star

June 21, 1958
Peebles Motors, Baker Street. $200,000 loss.

Sept. 20, 1959
South Nelson school (former Nelson High School). $300,000 loss. Lit by a “mixed up” nine year old boy.

Oct 1962
Nelson Golf and Country Club clubhouse. Destroyed.

Jan. 1963
Nelson Machinery Co. Ltd., corner Hall and Lake streets. Damage estimated at $50,000 but Burgess Tire Co. and Kootenay Industrial Supply saved.

April 17, 1967
St. Paul’s Trinity United Church. The church’s organist, a Trafalgar teacher, was charged with arson. Damage over $250,000. Rebuilt.

June 15, 1967
Palm Dairy, Baker Street. The building was vacant, having recently been sold to Macleods, and was being demolished.

April 17, 1968
Floating bandshell, Lakeside Park. Built for the 1965 International Water Pageant, the bandshell was under an order to be destroyed and had been the victim of previous arson attempts.

Nov. 17, 1969
Queens Hotel, Baker Street. Destroyed. $500,000 damage, including smoke damage to adjacent buildings. 20 guests evacuated.

April 28, 1970
House at 121 High Street. Claimed the lives of Winifred and Lillian Houck.

June 1972
Kootenay Forest Products

July 19, 1972
Overwaitea, 503 Vernon Street. Damage of $125,000. Six onlookers either volunteered or were conscripted to help fight the fire.

Nov. 24, 1973
Savoy Hotel, Falls Street. Beer parlor gutted. Arson. Repaired.

Aug. 2, 1974
Chinese Nationalist Society, 524 Lake St. Claimed the life of Wah (Shorty) Der, 69.

1975
Royal Hotel and Pink Maid Laundry, Baker St. Arson. Damage minimal.

April 26, 1975
City bus garage, Josephine St. $100,000 damage. Arson not suspected. Restored.

May 31, 1975
Blakeman’s Store warehouse, 446 Baker St. Arson. Damage $35,000 plus $5,000 to Fields next door.

June 13, 1975
Simpson Sears, Baker Street, and Trafalgar School auditorium, the latter a $275,000 loss. Both arson.

May 26, 1976
Nelson Home Furnishing, 600 block Baker Street. Upper story gutted.

Dec. 1, 1976
Johnstone block, Baker Street. Seven stores, including Mann’s Meat Market, Wing’s Grocery, and Dee’s Ladies Apparel destroyed, along with seven apartments. Suffered two previous fires: one in 1938 destroyed the top floor, another in 1949 destroyed seven businesses as well. Now the site of BCAA.

Nov. 2, 1977
Campus Billiards, Hall Street.

Feb. 28, 1979
Hume School. $300,000 to $400,000 damage. Arson. A 15-year-old was arrested. Goober the hamster was rescued. Although gutted, the rebuilt school incorporated the original brick facade.

July 10, 1981
Blaylock Manor. City council gave the fire department permission to respond to this fire, even though it was outside city limits.

Feb. 1982
Aberdeen block, Baker Street. $54,500 damage.

Sept. 28, 1982
Heritage Lanes bowling alley and Big Daddy’s Tonite night club, 500 block Vernon Street. $750,000 damage. Arson suspected. Big Daddy’s had been closed for some time before the fire.

Dec. 24, 1982
Mountain Billiards, 533A Baker Street. $100,000 damage. Arson suspected.

March 1, 1983
Modern Walls and Carpets, Modern Sew, Kootenay Business Services, 400 block Josephine St. Damage $75,000 to $100,000. Arson.

1984
Kootenay Forest Products sawmill

July 28, 1987
Kootenay Forest Products plywood plant. Largest fire in the city’s history.

April 2, 1992
Trailer fire at Klein’s Trailer Park. Claimed the lives of Aimee Beaulieu and her twin infants Samantha and David. Arson. Nelson’s worst unsolved crime.

Dec. 22, 1993
Kootenay Forest Products planer mill

1994
City of Nelson power plant

Jan. 1, 1998
Granite Pointe golf course restaurant and pro shop. Destroyed.

March 27, 1999
Morning Mountain ski lodge, Blewett. Destroyed.

Between 1998 and 2001
CP Rail maintenance building

July 28, 2001
House at 915 Carbonate St. Claims the lives of Vern Hodgkinson, Sarah Hellman, 35, and Andy Johnson, 35.

Oct. 8, 2001
House at 215 Stibbs St. Claims the life of Lynne Elizabeth Roberts, 54.

May 4, 2003
Nelson museum. The MV Amabilis is destroyed and other artifacts are smoke damaged. Arson.

July 3, 2003
Rod and Gun Club. Destroyed. Arson.

Jan. 18, 2006
Green block, Ward Street. $35,000 damage.

Nov. 10, 2007
Savoy Hotel, Falls Street. Mazatlan restaurant, Back Country Hostel, and Club 198 destroyed. Same building burned in 1973.

Dec. 18, 2008
Trailer fire, 700 block Lakeview Crescent. Claims life of Maurice John Eggie, 59.

Dec. 31, 2009
Kootenay Sleds and Wheels. Across the orange bridge. Former A&W.

Jul. 29, 2010
Redfish Grill, Baker Street. Former LD Cafe.

Jan. 6, 2011
Kerr Apartments, Victoria Street. Eighty people evacuated without injury but the building was gutted and later demolished. Nelson Home Furniture was also smoke damaged.