What do you see in the flames?

A photograph taken at an abandoned house on Walpole Island has sparked some ‘spooky’ conversation.

Guy Williams, a volunteer firefighter on Walpole Island, said about four or five years ago the Walpole Island Fire Department was asked by their secretary, Faith Myers, to burn down an old house on the First Nation Reserve.

The house on Chief’s Road South was where Myers’ family had grown up.

“Her family used to own the house a long time ago, but it was abandoned,” Williams said. “They didn’t live in it for quite some time, it was pretty much condemned. She asked if we could burn it down. We do that with abandoned houses down here. They approach us and ask us to burn houses down.”

Williams said a group of firefighters were available on a certain day and the controlled burn was put in motion.

On the day of the blaze, Williams posed with fellow volunteer firefighter Dylan Bradie and Fire Chief Charles Wright Sr. snapped a photo of the pair in front of the house, while it was fully engulfed.

Williams said he never thought much about the photograph or the day of the burn, until just recently when he made it his Facebook profile picture.

“One of my Facebook friends told me about it, he said there is a face in the doorway,” Williams said. “When I looked really hard at it, that is when I noticed there was a face at the arch of the doorway there.”

Williams said many of his friends told him it was “pretty crazy” to look at the photo.

“Yeah, can see two eyes a nose and mouth… crazy,” said Lynette Isaac.

“Someone in the doorway,” said Mike Plain.

Looking back on the day of the burn, Williams said he did remember one thing out of the ordinary.

“That house really burned hot for a small house,” he said. “That was about the only weird thing, other than that it was just a regular winter day.”

What do you see in the flames?

Let us know by commenting below or by e-mailing us at aaron@sydenhamcurrent.ca