The Knights of Columbus Hostel Fire of 1942

Where: The Rooms Theatre

When: Friday, Dec 8, 2017 @ 7:00 pm

Cost: Included With Admission

In 1942, the Knights of Columbus hostel in St. John’s burned to the ground with the loss of 99 people. Less than two weeks later, Justice Brian Dunfield was appointed to investigate the blaze, compiling over a thousand pages of testimony. Now, 75 years on, the testimony which is housed at The Rooms Provincial Archives remains a vital resource for scholarly activity. It is important that researchers in fire safety learn from such events – both from the point of view of the fire growth and spread but also the human behaviours witnessed or reported. Join Josee Ouelette, (R.C.M.P); Steve Gwynne, (Fire Safety); Rob Brown, Ph. D (Marine Institute, Memorial University and Aoife Hunt, Ph.D. (Managing Consultant at Movement Strategies London, United Kingdom) they use a vivid graphical representation of the hostel to present a timeline of the events, showing how the fire spread throughout the building, where people were located at various key moments in the fire and reported behaviors as the fire developed.