Families seek memorial at site of 1972 Montreal nightclub fire that killed 37

MONTREAL – It has been nearly four decades since an arson fire at a popular Montreal country and western bar killed 37 people and destroyed so many families.

But for those who survived the Blue Bird Cafe blaze of 1972 and for the families of those who didn’t, the years have been spent suffering in silence.

On Thursday, survivors and relatives of victims will get together for what is believed to be the first time when they hold a candlelit vigil at the site – now a nondescript parking lot.

They are demanding that a memorial be placed at the downtown spot in time for the 40th anniversary in 2012.

On Sept. 1, 1972, the Wagon Wheel, a club above the Blue Bird on Union Street, was teeming with patrons on a Friday night.

About 200 people had shown up for a night of live music and dancing that would mark the end of summer.

Three men, drunk and upset at being evicted by a bouncer earlier in the evening, returned at about 10:45 p.m. and set fire in a staircase that was the main entry to the Wagon Wheel.

The Wagon Wheel did not have enough fire exits and many inside the building died from smoke inhalation.

The blaze became known as the Blue Bird fire primarily because that establishment was more visible and had its name on the outside of the building.

Another 56 were injured in the blaze, which spurred standardized fire safety codes for public buildings in the city.

“I think when it happened, it was so horrific at the time . . . the families all withdrew into themselves,” Marlie Wirtanen, whose sister-in-law Kathy was killed in the blaze, told The Canadian Press.

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“It was such a shock, just the way they died, it was a long time before we could even talk about it.”

Wirtanen will be in Montreal on Thursday after travelling from from Tide Head, N.B., a village of about 1,000 that lost two residents, including Wirtanen’s sister-in-law, in the blaze.

Wirtanen said many families who don’t live in Montreal have said they’ll mark the sombre anniversary.

“I’ve heard from people from Vancouver to Cape Breton who will be lighting candles in their homes (on Thursday) night,” Wirtanen said.

“This is going to be in the hearts of a lot of people from one coast to the other.”

One of the people spearheading the memorial initiative is Sharon Share, a 38-year-old Montreal woman whose father Jerry died in the blaze.

Share was born three months after the fire and never knew him.

Share said Jerry had finished up a shift as a car jockey and had called just 15 minutes before the blaze to tell his wife he was stopping for a beer on the way home.

Share said her mother became a widow at 24 and raised her four children without ever marrying again. She couldn’t bring herself to visit her husband’s grave and often told her daughter how she didn’t know how she would have coped without her children.

“To me, my father mattered and his memory needs to live on,” Share said in an interview, pointing out the tragedy deserves to be recognized.

“It ruined a lot of families and there are still people who are still having a hard time with it after all these years,” Share said.

At the time, the victims tried to sue the city and the owner of the property, but facing a stacked legal team, a proposed $9-million lawsuit quickly fizzled.

The families of most of the victims were compensated with lump sums of between $1,000 and $3,000 for their losses.

David Montgomery, his brother Edward and sister Elizabeth were all at the Wagon Wheel that night. Natives of New Richmond, in the eastern Quebec region of Gaspe, they enjoyed country music.

He still remembers smoke billowing into the club.

“The stairs led to the street so it just acted like a chimney and all the smoke and fumes just went up the stairwell and filled the lounge where everyone was,” Montgomery said.

He was in the right place – a women’s washroom that had a window. People jumped one by one from the second storey window onto parked cars below.

His brother and sister weren’t as lucky. Edward sustained serious injuries and still has psychological scars to this day.

Elizabeth would be the 37th fatality, dying two days after the blaze from the injuries she suffered when a fire escape collapsed.

“My mom and dad were completely devastated by this,” Montgomery said. “It was very, very hard on them.”

Over the years, letters to the city regarding a memorial were largely ignored until recently when Montreal’s heritage department said it would consider the request.

What appears to have been the catalyst was the recent homicide of Kathleen Livingstone, 78, the mother of one of the victims.

Livingstone had spent years shutting people out but had recently found the will to live and was strongly involved in the push for a lasting memorial to be built.

Families will keep Livingstone in their hearts and have vowed to keep up the pressure.

“It is important that the 37 people be recognized so that this part of the history of Montreal will be remembered forever,” Montgomery said.