In early December 1975, folks were preparing for the Christmas holidays.
Baking materials were selling briskly at Calhoun’s IGA. Turkeys were on sale for 89 cents/pound (Butterballs for 99 cents/pound). Some families and community groups were preparing floats for the Santa Claus parade. Pet rocks were the hot toy item of the year (yes, this was a real thing).
At 4 am Thursday December 4th a massive explosion shook Millbrook and the surrounding area. The home of Mrs Muriel Steenburgh on Distillery Street across Baxter Creek from the arena was “blown to smithereens” (smithereens comes from the old Irish term for small fragments). Mrs Steenburgh, a widow, was in Florida at the time. The neighbouring home of Mrs David Lunn, another widow, was “a shambles”, shifted off its foundation, with large cracks in the walls and ceilings. Mrs Lunn and a boarder, OPP constable Ken Winterton , were unscathed, although both were pelted with glass from the blown in bedroom windows. The adjacent Orange Lodge was wrecked and the nearby Hamilton house was severely damaged.
On the other side of Baxter Creek was the Memorial Arena, erected in commemoration of those who had served in World War II. Its roof had collapsed, partly because a section of the Steenburgh’s roof had landed on it. Portions of the walls were blown in. A six month old infant sleeping in the front room of a small apartment building near the arena slept through the explosion despite being covered in glass and plaster dust. This building was damaged beyond repair.
The blast broke windows and knocked articles off shelves in an area extending west to the United Church (now the Millbrook Cathedral), north past the high school (now the elementary school), and east beyond Bank Street South. The commercial block on King Street was particularly hard hit; virtually every window of the buildings on the north side of the street was broken. Some apartment tenants were shaken out of bed by the blast.
Every window on the west side of the elementary school (now the Old School) was shattered. Bits of plaster had fallen off walls and ceilings. Shards of glass had been driven into the principal’s office wall opposite the windows.
The sound of the explosion was heard at OPP headquarters in Peterborough. All available police cruisers were immediately dispatched towards the sound of the explosion even before calls started coming in. The volunteer fire department didn’t need to hear the bell ringing in the fire tower to get geared up and rush into town. By 5 am volunteers at the Legion had opened the hall, coffee was brewed up and soup and sandwiches were being prepared to serve to first responders and townsfolk displaced by the explosion.
Incredibly, there were no deaths and the only injury was to a man who needed six stitches to close a cut on his forehead. However, as Legion President Bob Carr told a Peterborough Examiner reporter, “It could have been a morgue, you know. If it had happened at 8 o’clock the kids would have been right by the place up the hill (heading to school). It’s a miracle”. From the Millbrook Chronicle; “If the explosion had happened at 4 pm (or 8 am) the walkway from the school would have been heavily peopled by children, as it is used by all the downtown and west end children, and it runs within a few feet of the scene of the blast.”
The cause of the explosion was found to be from a leak in the feeder pipe from the propane tank at the side of the house to the furnace in the basement. It was set off when the furnace turned on.
The explosion did solve a problem for the village council. The arena was in need of extensive repairs and there was a passionate debate going on whether to repair or replace the building (sound familiar?). We got a new arena (now the old arena). It is also why all the homes on Distillery Street, except the one at the far end, all date to the mid 70s.
The explosion was widely covered in news reports across Ontario. A few days after the blast one local wag was heard to say “it certainly put us on the map”, to which his buddy replied “it damn near took it off the map”.
By the way, prizes for best group float at the Santa Claus parade went to the Volunteer Fire Department and wives, Zion Pentecostal Church and the Millbrook Brownies.
Now and Then by Dan Bourgeois