Fire
Shortly after 2 a.m. on September 19, 2008, a fire broke out in the building's banquet room. Fire alarms first went off at 2:12 a.m.
The Greater Sudbury Fire Service responded to the alarms, and the fire appeared to be under control by 6 a.m. However, an isolated pocket of the fire later erupted again, and by 9:30 a.m. the revived fire had reached the building's second floor offices. By 11:15 a.m., police ordered the evacuation of the nearby Sudbury Secondary School and Lansdowne Public School. Lansdowne students were bussed to Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School in the city's south end, while Sudbury Secondary students were moved to Lockerby Composite School. At the end of the school day, students who would ordinarily walk home from Lansdowne and Sudbury Secondary were bussed to St. David's Catholic Elementary School for vehicle pickup by their parents.
With the fire remaining out of control, late that afternoon the decision was made to begin pulling down the building's walls in an attempt to contain the fire's spread. Excavators began creating a platform at around 6 p.m., and around 7:15 p.m. the excavators began to pull down the walls.
The fire was not fully extinguished until approximately 4 a.m. on September 20, 26 hours after it began. Firefighters used more than one million gallons of water to douse the flames.
United Steelworkers regional director Wayne Fraser issued a statement calling the fire a tragedy both for the union and the city as a whole:
| “ | A large part of the history of Sudbury and the United Steelworkers has literally gone up in smoke. I grew up going to meetings in that hall, as did tens of thousands of other USW members. It is where we worked, socialized, fought and made up. We were educated there. It was our university and our home for over 40 years. | ” |
Ontario New Democratic Party leader Howard Hampton also issued a statement, speaking about the building's special place in the hearts of party members in the Sudbury area:
| “ | The hall has a special meaning for Sudbury New Democrats who saw it as a home away from home. It’s where they gathered regularly for nomination meetings, fundraisers, and community forums. It’s where former MPP Shelley Martel won her first nomination meeting in May 1987 and, where, two decades later, she announced her retirement from provincial politics. It’s also where current Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas announced her intention to replace Martel and where the symbolic torch was passed from the Martel political dynasty to her. | ” |
Mayor John Rodriguez stated that "all my victories were celebrated in that hall and all my defeats." He called the building a "labour temple ... a repository of what people believe, what motivates people, what drives an economy, a community."
Many of the union's records, including active files and archives comprising a major part of the city's documented labour history, were destroyed in the fire. Leo Gerard, a former leader of Local 6500 who has been the president of the Steelworkers International since 2001, returned to Sudbury on the weekend and spoke to the media, stating that "next to losing a family member, this is the most traumatic event in my life."
At the time of the fire, the hall had already been booked solid for events every weekend through 2010.
Read more about this topic: Sudbury Steelworkers Hall, History
Famous quotes containing the word fire:
“My arising prodigal
Sun the father his quiver full of the infants of pure fire ...”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Is not prayer also a study of truth,—a sally of the soul into the unfound infinite? No man ever prayed heartily, without learning something. But when a faithful thinker, resolute to detach every object from personal relations, and see it in the light of thought, shall, at the same time, kindle science with the fire of the holiest affections, then will God go forth anew into creation.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Let it be forgotten as a flower is forgotten,
Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold.”
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)