National Network for Equitable Library Service

Day after day, thousands of people passed by an unassuming, three-storey building on the corner of New Gower and Springdale streets in St. John’s. Operated by the Hull family, the ground floor was rented to a commission merchant; the top two floors and annex building were used as a private hospital for aged and infirm patients. In the dead of winter, on February 10, 1948, the simple lighting of a defective oil stove in the main building set off a chain of events that burned the Hull Home and its Annex to the ground. When the smoke cleared, searchers found death in every room and hallway. In this gripping historical novel, Linda Abbott vividly recreates St. John’s of the 1940s, exploring the details of the inferno, as well as the human side, of a tragedy that could have been avoided.