Chimney Ghosts and Portals

 By Marge Padgitt

Are chimneys portals to other dimensions?

Since our company does chimney inspections and repair, we are around fireplaces and chimneys all the time.  We have noticed a pattern of ghostly activity and orbs around chimneys, and I am beginning to think that this sort of activity is common. I also have a theory as to why paranormal events happen around chimneys, but more about that later.

 Over the years my company has taken thousands of pictures of chimneys and fireplaces with digital cameras. I started noticing that orbs were showing up in the photos when an extremely dramatic photo with colored orbs showed up in May of 2003. This was the first time I noticed anything unusual in the photos, and this prompted me to watch for other anomalies around chimneys when inspection reports come in. We started using digital cameras around 1999, before that we used 35 mm film which never showed anything out of the ordinary. Digital cameras pick up more of the UV spectrum, so they sometimes get things that the naked eye cannot see. In all but one case, the inspector did not see anything at the time, but the strange items show up when the photos are on the computer.

In the past two years we have collected quite a few photos that show something unusual in them such as colored orbs, white orbs, white streams of heavy fog, and in one instance—a clearly defined face of a man in a back fireplace wall. In every case, I compared the rest of the photographs taken at the same time and of the same chimney, and in all but one case they show nothing unusual. It is usually ONE photograph that catches something, then the rest at the same location do not show anything. There is only one chimney so far where an orb showed up in three different photos from different angles, and in the case of the face in the fireplace it can still be seen with the naked eye at the home. 

We do approximately five inspections per day with 10-20 photos taken at each house, so the photos with anomalies are only a small fraction of the total number of photos we have on file.  With this in mind, that means that it is fairly rare to catch an orb or ghost on film.  

Now for some ghostly experiences. In 1989 our company swept 350 chimneys at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. We ran into three ghosts at Leavenworth that were rather uncooperative and apparently did not appreciate us disturbing them. The fort was established in 1827 and has a long history of spirits. At least nine ghosts have been officially reported, but there are likely more that have not been reported. During our work, several highly unusual events occurred that can only be attributed to the paranormal. Unfortunately, we do not have photos of any fireplaces since photography is not allowed on the base. All the chimneys are constructed with bricks and mortar.

Historic Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

House #1: This house was the oldest building on the post and was originally a chapel.  The chapel burned down in approximately 1827, and a clergyman named Father Fred was killed in the fire.  A new house was built on the same spot in the 1830’s— presumably using the same chimney.   While we were sweeping the chimney, coal dust started coming through the entire masonry wall in the living room.  There were no holes or cracks in the masonry!  The entire lower level of the house was dusted with fine, grey coal dust and we had to go back and spend 8 hours vacuuming and cleaning up. What a mess! I was mortified, as nothing like that had ever happened to us. 

The colonel’s wife was not upset at all, and calmly explained to me that the problem must have been caused by their resident ghost!  She told me that right after moving into the house, they hosted a party for the officers and their wives. During the party, a woman screamed when she saw a face of a man in the fire in the fireplace. Everyone saw the same thing and ran screaming out of the house. Evidently, it was quite a scene. After that, the family saw the apparition of a man floating on the landing next to the chimney on several occasions. He was wearing a clergy outfit, but his feet did not materialize when he appeared. He also appeared on many occasions in the fire, so the family quit using the fireplace. Well, at least it is clean now. I hope that ghost appreciates it.

House #2: Built in the later 1800’s, this is a large three-story home. The occupant (the wife of an officer) notified us upon arrival that the room we were going to be working in was haunted, and the ghost often closed the door. She noted that she was leaving the door open all the way and that the door was off balance leaning in towards the room, then she left us to our work. I tarped off the fireplace, then sent a tech up to the top of the chimney to start sweeping.  While standing alone in the room, the door suddenly slammed shut. I quickly ran over to the door and opened it to see if anyone was around, but there was no one in the hall. I then heard strange noises and talking coming from the fireplace and called the sweep on the radio to see what was going on.  She said she did not say anything, and of course there was no one else on the chimney with her.  When the lady of the house returned, she was not surprised to hear about the goings–on.  She also told me that it was common knowledge among the residents at Fort Leavenworth that there is a lot of ghostly activity going on in the older houses. We packed up our gear and got out as quickly as possible.

House #3: Built around 1840, this is a two-story brick house with slate roof and brick chimney.  I was outside by the van talking to the homeowner. One tech was inside at the fireplace, and another tech was outside on top of the roof doing the sweeping.  Suddenly the ladder fell over on its side—seemingly pushed by someone who was not there. The occupant and I both saw it fall over. The sweep walked over to the place where the ladder was but could not get down until we got the ladder back up again. This was a 40’ heavy aluminum ladder that weighs 80 lbs.! There was no wind that day and it was tied down to the gutter with a bungee cord!  I had to call in another crew to get the ladder back up so the sweep could get down. The occupant of the home told me that they have a mischievous ghost who lives with them and causes havoc frequently.  He said that the ghost hung around the fireplace most of the time.

I did an internet search to see if there was any information about the Fort Leavenworth ghosts, and it turns out that there are several books written about the subject that are available. From hauntedhouses.com I found the following information regarding the fireplace at 605 McClellan, located in the McClellan Officer's quarters. This house is a large three-story home. Apparently when a family moved in this house in 1975, a spirit made itself known to them. While enjoying a warm fire in the fireplace, the family was “gripped with fearful fascination” when an apparition of a man with a mustache and goatee appeared in the middle of the flame. When the fire died out, the face of this ghostly man appeared and remained on the back of the fireplace. This case sounds like the face in the fireplace I mentioned earlier.

A program about these spirits was presented on the Discovery Channel. The occupants of the house said that every psychic investigator that has gone through the home notices that one of the entities comes in through the fireplace damper and stands in front of the fireplace. The temperature where the ghost stands is noticeably colder than the surrounding area.

Thurnham Hall, Lancaster, England built in 1060

 We made a trip to Lancaster, England in April of 2005 and got to stay in a wonderful stone 10th century hall or “manor house” called Thurnham Hall. On the third evening of our stay, the activities director presented a tour of the building and told stories of the ghosts that choose to occupy several rooms in the large hall. Our guide showed a VCR tape in one room that had been occupied by a man who killed his wife in the 1700’s. The tape had been made by a film crew from British television who brought along a psychic to do research for a program on ghosts. I filmed the TV screen so the quality of my tape is not that great—but it is digital so you can plainly what is going on. Everyone in the room watching the tape gasped as they watched hundreds of tiny white glowing orbs appear from the fireplace. The orbs exited the fireplace into the room, then went through the walls in several directions. This continued for at least two full minutes. 

I am not sure what the orbs, fog, and impressions are—perhaps they are spirits of people who have passed on, or spirits that have never inhabited a human body. or maybe they are life forms that we do not yet understand, or beings from another dimension. I speculate that spirits hang out in the fifth dimension and sometimes enter our fourth dimensional space and time through a portal of some type. Perhaps chimney are portals.

I believe is that ghosts like chimneys. Why? Here is my theory – in doing research on ghosts in the Kansas City area I talked with several ghost hunters including Chris Breathwaite, a local Kansas City paranormal investigator and author. Chris and others have mentioned on several occasions that there is more paranormal activity around rivers, streams, and railroad tracks. I got to thinking about what those features have in common with chimneys. It is movement. There is a flow of energy in any river, stream, or railroad track. And the correlation with chimneys is DRAFT, the only difference being that chimneys are vertical. 

All chimneys are designed to create draft to remove toxic flue gasses and smoke from the fireplace or appliance without mechanical means. It is simply physics that makes a chimney work. The temperature differential between the outside of the chimney and the inside of the house is basically what creates draft. Draft is different at certain times of the year, being stronger in the cold winter months. That is also the time of year that people spend more time around the fireplace and fire up their gas furnace. Are there more sightings in the winter as a result?  That will be my next project to pursue. But draft in a chimney occurs all the time, even when it reverses because something is wrong with the system or house. The pictures we have taken of orbs are from all seasons of the year.

I plan to continue my research on this subject. If the reader has photos of orbs, apparitions, or ghosts around fireplaces or chimneys, I would like to have a copy for our research project on this subject. Contact me at margepadgitt@comcast.net.