CINCINNATI — Cincinnati firefighters believe one firehouse in Pleasant Ridge is haunted.
Engine 8 was built in 1931. For years, firefighters have reported encountering ghosts in the bunk room. Captain Ed Wallace is one of them.
"Some people say I just have that energy. I don't want it, but I have it," Wallace said. “I saw the ghost a couple of times."
Wallace said the first time he saw the ghost of Engine 8 was nearly 20 years ago.
"I could see this big transparent shadow," he said. "Didn't have a face, but you could see something was moving back and forth."
Wallace said there have been a few sightings on the first floor, but the ghost encounters mostly happen upstairs in the bunk room.
"This is the bed where it happened to me and a couple of other people," he said.
In the bunk room, there’s a bed positioned in the corner of the room — right next to a little door that leads to a closet.
"This is the room everybody's scared of," Wallace said.
Wallace said the first time he encountered the ghost, he heard banging on the lockers in their locker room. He figured it was just one of the other firefighters changing their clothes and tried to ignore it, going to sleep.
"I dozed off, and as I dozed off, I could feel somebody put their hand over my nose and my mouth," Wallace said. "As soon as I felt the hand on my nose and my mouth, we got a run. So, it’s almost like the run saved me."
It wasn’t long before Wallace had another encounter. He was in the exact same spot as the first time he saw the ghost. Once again, he was in the bed in the corner, right next to the tiny door.
"Sat on the edge of the bed ... looked up, huge transparent shadow walking back and forth," he said.
After Wallace’s second encounter, he was relocated to work at a different firehouse.
"I didn’t go back to that house for 12 years," he said.
When he first told his other firefighters at Engine 8 what he saw, they laughed it off.
"They started laughing and joking. Then they started referencing the movie, 'The Sixth Sense,'" he said. "So, for 12 years, every time I’d walk around it was 'I see dead people' — that was the joke towards me."
Wallace may have been the first to talk about his ghost encounter at Engine 8, but he wouldn’t be the last.
"Some other people have seen it. Nobody really talked about it until I started talking about it… It was kind of a secret," he said. "Then once I came out, everybody was talking about how there's something there."
Over the years, many firefighters said they’ve also had ghost encounters at Engine 8. Now, it’s well-known across the Cincinnati Fire Department. So much so, that it’s now part of Engine 8’s "mascot."
Wallace said each CFD firehouse has their own logo to represent the station. Engine 8's is a ghost.
After 12 years, Wallace returned to Engine 8.
“I became lieutenant at the house," Wallace said. "I didn't go upstairs that much, except to use the restroom. I pretty much stayed on the first floor."
Wallace said he even slept in the first floor’s office in hopes of avoiding any more ghost encounters.
"Nothing really happens on the first one. You get a lot of creepy sounds and noises," he said.
He left Engine 8 once again about a year ago, starting a new position within CFD. He’s now Captain of Internal Investigations for Cincinnati Fire Department.
But Wallace has some advice for the future of Engine 8: Stay away from the bed by the little door.
"That bed ... It all happens in that bed," said Wallace.
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