Eau Claire Fire Station

Firefighter Alex Arnie Blum died of heart disease in 1981 at age 77 after 30 years at Eau Claire's Station 10, and according to Sherry Strub's book "Wisconsin's Ghosts," 80% of firefighters at the station said they'd seen his apparition. Pots and pans flew off walls, heavy doors opened on their own, and the crew considered Blum a welcome member of the team.

Eighty percent of firefighters at Eau Claire's Station 10 said they'd seen Alex Blum. Not a photo of him on the wall, not a memorial plaque. The man himself, walking through the station where he'd worked for 30 years.

Alex Arnie Blum died of heart disease in 1981 at age 77. He'd spent three decades at Fire Station No. 10 on the corner of Birch Street and Hastings Way, long enough that the place felt less like a workplace and more like an extension of his own house. According to Sherry Strub's book "Wisconsin's Ghosts," Blum didn't seem interested in leaving after he died.

The activity started with noise. Boots walking across the floor above when nobody was upstairs. Then things got physical. Pots and pans launched off the kitchen wall. Heavy doors, the ones that take real effort to swing, opened and closed on their own. Equipment moved between shifts with no explanation from anyone on the crew.

Blum wasn't a menacing presence. Firefighters who worked at Station 10 described him as friendly, even welcome. He was their ghost, part of the crew in a way that mattered to them. The haunting had a warmth to it that most ghost stories lack. Nobody tried to get rid of him. Nobody called in investigators or priests. They just coexisted.

The old Station 10 at 559 North Hastings Way eventually closed. The building became a used car dealership, which is about as undignified a second life as a fire station can get. A new Station 10 was built to replace it. When the move happened, firefighters were asked about Alex. Their answer was perfect: "If he wants to come, he will. If he wants to stay, he will."

That line says everything about how the crew felt about Blum. He wasn't a problem to solve or a story to debunk. He was a firefighter who put in 30 years and apparently decided retirement wasn't for him. The new station is operational, fully staffed, and by most accounts, one man over capacity on the overnight shift.