The Knights of Columbus Hostel fire

Was the Knights of Columbus Hostel fire, the worst fire in Newfoundland’s history, deliberately set by the enemy?

Newfoundland was at war. The Knights of Columbus Hostel provided service for military personnel stationed in St. John’s. It had a restaurant, a dormitory, a recreation room, and an auditorium.

On December 12, 1942, at about 11 pm, everyone around St. John’s had their radio dials tuned to VOCM for the Saturday Night Barn Dance live from the Knights of Columbus Hostel on Harvey Road.

That Saturday night, somewhere between 350 and 500 people crowded into the hostel to listen to Uncle Tim's Barn Dance Troupe, a popular act at the time.

Just after 11 pm, Eddy Adams, a Canadian soldier, took to the stage.

Unbeknownst to Adams or anyone else in the auditorium, there was a fire burning in the attic.

A gentleman from the Newfoundland Militia went upstairs to find a bathroom, he opened a door and came face-to-face with a wall of flames.

With a fresh supply of oxygen, the fire exploded, tearing through the roof.

Back in the auditorium, Adams had just begun singing ‘The Moonlight Trail’ when someone yelled, “Fire! Fire! Fire!”

Suddenly, the singing stopped.

Over VOCM’s airwaves, a commotion could be heard, then the sound of muffled explosions, followed by panicked voices screaming, fire!

People pushed to the exits but struggled with the doors. In a lapse in judgment, the doors swung inward to open exactly opposite the movement of the crowd. Worse still, according to reports, some doors were blocked due to wartime blackouts.

Some of the crowd thought of jumping through the windows, but the windows had been screened to prevent light from escaping. Eventually, some screens were broken, but it cost them valuable time.

In little more than an hour, the Knights of Columbus building was gone.

Eighty military personnel and 19 civilians died in the fire, and more than a hundred people were injured.

It was the worst building fire not only in Newfoundland, but in all of Canada.

And it may not have been an accident.

The cause of the fire has never been definitively proven, but almost immediately, people began to wonder whether St. John’s was home to an enemy operative.

Justice Brian Dunfield was tasked with investigating the disaster. He was of the opinion that the fire was, indeed, of suspicious origin, though he was unable to establish a definitive motive.

One of the factors he considered was the fact that the K of C fire was not an isolated event. In the weeks after the fire, there was an unsuccessful attempt at arson at the city’s YMCA Hostel. There was another fire at the Old Colony Club, which was used by service personnel, that led to 4 more deaths. On top of that, there was a suspicious fire extinguished at the U.S.O. club in the city.

It was getting hard to believe all this destruction could be a coincidence. Whether it was the work of a homegrown arsonist or the actions of an enemy agent, could never be proven