It's not the Christmas trees wrapped in plastic that are the ghosts. Can you see the orbs in the righthand side of the picture? Unless there is a flash from a camera, the orbs cannot be seen. Could they be spirits? This picture was taken in the storage room of the old Barre Fire House which originally was a changing room for the firemen in the early 20th century. When visiting the Ladder 1 Grill at the old firehouse in Barre include a toast to the firefighters who have risked their lives and also to the spirits that are left behind.

The old firehouse, built in 1904, has a history of paranormal activity dating back fifty years. There are some that still talk about it, such as one firefighter who said that while sleeping in bed, he saw a man standing over him, a spirit. The firefighter said to the apparition, "Hey man, I am a fire fighter just like you." The figure faded away.

Valerie White, owner of Ladder 1 Grill with her husband, Richard, said, "We have a woman who cleans in the middle of the night. One night, she heard a sound of chains. She went upstairs and saw two balls of lights floating in mid air." Valerie said the woman grabbed her cell phone and took a photo of the lights and they floated up and disappeared into the ceiling.

These Christmas decorations were thrown out of the box where they were packed and landed on the floor while the authors were present in the room. No one was near the box when it happened. W.A.R.P.S. (Wills and Rizzotto Paranormal Society) with Robert Wills and Shannon Rizzotto, investigated the possible spirit activity within the building on two occasions during October. Both Rob and Shannon believe it is best to investigate a location at least two times since paranormal activity only occurs periodically.

The equipment used for this investigation consisted of two EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) recorders. EVP records voices that are not heard by people but picked up through the recorders.

Two EMF detectors were used. EMF detectors respond to electro magnetic fields.

A temperature recorder was also used to detect unusual variations of temperatures. It is believed that spirits also cause cold spots by drawing energy around it.

A digital camera was used for any anomalies not seen by at the time. Photos are taken both with and without flash.

A digital mini DVD camera allows for video and audio to be recorded, often left in rooms when no one is present to capture any activity that may occur.

A laser light is also used in conjunction with the video camera.

An ultra violet light is used during the investigation in order to broaden the normal range of visible light to the human eye.

On the first investigation, Richard White, owner of Ladder 1 Grill and cook Charlie Paige stayed after hours to join us. The investigation involved three floors, the basement, the ground floor and the upper floor.

We started around 11:00 p.m. when Shannon took an EMF reading on the ground floor. Most of that area showed no significant variations in readings, however there was one area that jumped to an unusually high spike. An EVP recorder was also used along with some digital photos.

When we entered the stairway hall to the upstairs, the EMF detectors went crazy with extremely high peaks of electro magnetic readings, the unit beeped constantly. Due to this, we took some photos.

Our next step, we entered the upstairs where the old lockers are. We set up the video camera. In addition, we set the laser down the hallway. The lights were turned off and we left the equipment alone.

While the video camera and laser were running, we went to the basement to check EMF readings, take some photos and use the EVPs.

We returned to the upper floor to remove the video and laser and set them up on the ground floor covering the entire room of the restaurant and flower shop area. Leaving the video and laser operating, we returned to the upper floor to get some readings. For awhile, there were no responses on the EMF to questions. Responses soon came through high spikes on the EMF as beeps.

Shannon asked, "is there a reason you hang out here, because this is not a place I would want to hang out for 100 years." Directly after that statement, the EMF detector made many beeps through high spikes.

Rob then commented that we were going to open up the lockers to look at all the personal items. The EMF detector immediately went through and explosive amount of multiple beeps. As we opened the lockers, the EMF continued multiple beeps.

While sitting on the floor in the same position, Shannon then noticed that ultra-violet light that was clipped to his hat was missing. He stood up, checked his clothes and body in case it fell. He looked on the floor but was unable to find it. Rob, Shannon, Richard and Charlie then made a thorough search of the area including all areas of the upper floor. The light was nowhere to be found. There was no reasonable explanation of the light to be missing.

As the evening progressed, Rob sat alone in the dark upstairs in the locker area attempting more EVPs. Shannon and Charlie went back to the basement for more work. After some time, Rob left the upper floor but before going downstairs he took a photo of the stairway from the top landing. In the window of the digital camera, he noticed a shadow to the right of the photo. Immediately he took another photo from the same spot but was unable to capture a shadow again.

As the investigation ended, Rob and Shannon did one last walk through in the basement with the video camera. Near the end of the walk through, the ultra-violet light was discovered sitting in the center of the top lid of a trashcan.

Our second investigation took place on October 17 from about 11:00 p.m. till about 2:30 a.m. On this night we were joined by Valerie White, her friend Pam Pickett and Charlie. Two additional people showed up who were interested in the process, Charlie's wife, Robin and her friend Holly Cone.

We began our investigation upstairs.

We entered the old classroom of the building where some noises had been experienced. We used an EVP and both EMF detectors. Upon leaving the room, we left the video camera to run alone while we investigated other rooms not visited in our first investigation.

In the old captain's room, we received high EMF responses to questions posed by the group.

Within the locker area we attempted further EMF readings.

The moment we mentioned we planned to open the lockers, again, the EMF went crazy. The highest energy came from one specific locker. Upon opening it, the name inside read, Albert Galfetti, the fire chief from 1965 to 1990, whom Valerie had always felt his spirit remained in the building.

Then, some of our equipment began to fail, as power seemed to drain rapidly although the batteries were in full charge. The EMF detectors failed as well as Robin's camera.

Shannon and Rob entered the basement to do some EVP work in the dark. As we were asking for a sign, there was a loud crash heard around the corner. We discovered a Christmas ornament had been broken on the floor. The box that held the ornaments nearby was not overflowing. The ornament would have had to leap up, over the lip of the box and down to the ground. A moment later, there was another sound a little further away.

Soon after that incident, Shannon and Charlie stood near the boxes of Christmas ornaments with the lights on. On one of the boxes sat a large glass bowl containing ribbons that were tied into bows. As they stood there, almost the entire contents of the bowl suddenly shot up and scattered on the floor around Charlie's feet. The bowl remained unmoved. Charlie decided to then leave the basement.

We felt that with much activity happening around the Christmas ornaments, we would set up the video camera, pointed towards the boxes and down the basement. We left the camera alone and returned to join everyone else upstairs in the dining area of the restaurant.

Once the investigation was over, all that remained was reviewing the hours of audio and video and photos taken. We were not let down.

Our photos revealed a variety of anomalies, some containing simple Orbs, balls of lights that some believe may be the energy of spirits. One photo in particular was worthy of special notice, taken in the basement. The photo showed an extremely high concentration of Orbs, more so than any captured previously.

Another photo of the staircase shows a light form, which could be interpreted as "plasma." The plasma shows a beam of light that starts around the bottom of the windowsill of the first landing of the steps. It then spreads out to beyond the baseboard into strips. Upon further study of the photo, the entire plasma seems encased in a larger circle of light. We made quite a few attempts to recreate that effect under the same conditions but were unable to do so.

In addition, our digital camera captured two separate photos of shadows. One was taken at the top landing of the staircase, the other in the basement. Attempts to recreate those photos were unsuccessful.

Our hours of EVP resulted in one unexplained voice. As the staircase seemed to show some activity through our EMF detectors and the photo of the shadow, a recorder was left unattended during our last investigation. In the audio, a distinct voice is heard in a very unreal slow, deep voice. What is heard is, "I can't, I can't do it." Seconds later it said, "What are you doing?' As the voice sounds low and deep, we changed it to a higher pitch. It still remained as an unrecognized voice and has an odd sound to it. The EVP may be heard on our website, thenorthfieldnews. com.

In reviewing the videos, we found several interesting, unexplained events. The video left upstairs in the locker area in the dark with the lazar has many sounds in that room. Sounds of clicks, such as door hinges or door knobs are heard. Three times the camera refocuses on areas closer than the back of the hallway. We may assume that the refocusing may be due to some of the locker doors opening, causing the camera to refocus. It would tie in with the metallic clicking sounds heard of door locks.

The video of the classroom shows noises throughout its entire run directly in that room. Sounds of banging, sounds of multiple tapping noises that is similar to the sound of chalk tapping on a chalkboard as someone is writing, however, no chalkboard remains in that room.

The strongest evidence came from the video left down in the basement, towards the Christmas ornaments. This video displays complete poltergeist activity, objects manipulated by an unnatural source. It is clearly seen two events with the first being a long stick or reed about 2 ? feet long, which was sitting on one of the boxes with about an inch hanging over the top is "pounded" up and lands hard on the ground with great force. Seconds later, a projectile "at rocket speed" flies past the boxes and smashes onto the floor. The projectile traveled at such a speed that it was necessary to view the video multiple times to trace the source. It originated from further down the room, from the ceiling and across the room at a deliberate angle. The speed from its origin is impossible to duplicate. We are unsure if the object first manifested or if there was an object stuck to the ceiling. In either case, human intervention is impossible.

After reviewing all of the evidence it is safe to say with no hesitation that Ladder 1 Grill/The Barre Fire House is haunted. It is so noted however that there seems to be more then one entity within this building as the voices heard via the EVP in the staircase and in answer to questions on the second floor is not the same as the entity within the basement with which is what seems to be full of mischievous intent. We are confident that be it more then one entity within they mean no harm but for what purpose they remain is unclear.

If you know of a location or are interested in having WARPs come and investigate a place for you please go to our website at www.vermontwarps.bravehost.c om or stop in to the Northfield News as we would love to speak with you regarding your situation.