Manitoba Cold Storage

Comforting a Hurt One - April 23, 2004

    After a week of the twin weekend arsons I decided that Manitoba Cold Storage some comfort after such trauma. Plus the newer section of the complex was accessible, a luxury that I had not been able to afford in the past.

    Entry was ridiculously easy, all I had to do was walk through one of the numerous holes in the wall created by firefighters. The hole I entered through brought me into a room that contained a Toledo Scale, a strapper and some other machine whose purpose is still unknown to me. After taking pictures I began to walk down a north-south hallway that had large empty rooms to the right and bizarre loading doors on the left. While walking down this hallway it was evident that there had been a fire with the large amount of water still dripping from the ceiling and pooling on the floor. The sound of the dropping water created a surreal scene, its fall and contact could be heard as the large empty rooms amplified every sound.

    At the end of this hallway was a east-west hallway that was much wider than the previous one. The fire unfortunately had made its way to this part but thankfully contained itself to the ceiling. About halfway down the hallway were two freight elevators that were sturdy although beginning to severely rust. Across the hallway was a staircase that led to the basement and the upper three levels but I chose to continue heading west.

    Eventually the hallway ended at a T-shaped intersection with another north-south hallway that was used for loading rail cars. All of the doors however were missing so sunlight was able to stream through illuminating the entire length of the hallway and the scattered carts. There was nothing much to see on the North end of the hallway so I went to the end of it and followed it as it made a 90 degree right turn.

    Along this straight portion were some oddly placed items, some barrels, chairs and the frame of a burnt out mattress. Beside these items lay the other side of the rail loading docks that was being used for storage. Continuing down the hall yielded a stairwell that led to a second story office. There wasn't much in the office but multiple copies of an interesting resume.

    After looking at the résumé's I decided to head up and continued up to the second story. There wasn't much to see here as everything was empty so I headed up to the third floor to see if there was anything. Although a walkway to the older building was available on the third floor there was nothing different so I went up to the fourth floor. What I expected was much of the same but how I was surprised to see that it was only a small room of maybe 100 sq. feet. It was in this small room that a large amount of piping equipment such as valves were stored as well as some other things. Leading out from this room was a small confined space that was also used for some storage but was mainly empty making the decision to not explore it fully easy.

    Half a story above this was the elevator room and a doorway to access the roof and after taking pictures I decided to head into the basement.

    One of the key features of this building that I always enjoyed was the dramatic air temperature cooling as one descended into the lower bowels of the building. As I drew closer to the basement my breath began to show more and more and the hairs on my arm began to slowly raise. As I began to walk down the last flight of stairs I hadn't noticed the black ice on the stairs, an error that would cost me. Nearing the mid-way point of the last flight of stairs and holding my camera, tri-pod and dummy flash (actually a crappy camera I found at the dump) the heel of my right foot didn't hit concrete. Instead it hit black ice and was immediately propelled forward throwing me back onto the staircase and everything save for my camera into a pit of black water below. (There is a flooded crawl space directly below the staircase) With a throbbing head and sore back I thanked God I didn't fare worse and began the tedious search for my dummy flash. After five minutes of looking for it in frigid, half frozen water I found it and continued on my soggy way.

     What amazed me about the basement was how large and decayed everything was. The ceilings, which were easily two stories in some parts easily ate up my light and the brown rust and chemical filled water often tried to give me a booter. Many of the rooms were of the same layout but each had its own different feel with differing amounts of decay.

     Exploring these rooms eventually brought me back to where I had begun so I chose to follow large air ducts on the south side of the building. These led past various open rooms and dead sliced up fish (how they got there is still a mystery) and into the old building via a doorway. If I had not previously been in the old buildings' basement I would have been oblivious to the fact that I had indeed left the newer portion. There wasn't anything new to see so I took pictures of the mechanical room and exited the building uneventfully.