Fire dispatch dormitory and a dream of an 1864 village by the Santa Ana River
An unidentified caller says they are in Birch Bay, Washington, and that in 1984 they worked at a fire communications center on the banks of the Santa Ana River. The caller reports that they felt something lay across their legs and saw a fog-like form in the dispatch dormitory. The caller then had a vivid dream set in 1864 of a dying woman in a small village. In the dream they merge with a young woman, are shown a dying old woman, and are then confronted by the faces of villagers whose deaths they say they felt. The caller says a fellow dispatcher reported feeling watched and refused to sleep in the dormitory. Art closes by suggesting dispatch centers, as places of crisis, are places of haunting.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1998.mp3”, starting at 33:43). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, who says they are in Birch Bay, Washington, tells Art they worked at a fire communications center on the banks of the Santa Ana River, and dates this to 1984. The caller says the center ran 24-hour shifts and that none of the dispatchers would sleep in the dormitory. They bedded down in hallways or the lounge instead. About a week in, the intercom woke them so they could sleep until noon before a 12-hour overtime shift. The caller reports feeling something lay across their legs with a groan. The caller then woke and saw what they call “a gelatinous fog” above their head in a pitch-dark room. When the caller asked colleagues what was going on, the caller says colleagues told them to go back to bed and that colleagues would tell them about the ghost later. On the next shift, shortly before 1 a.m., the caller says they had a vivid dream. The caller was walking the banks of the Santa Ana River and knew it was 1864. The city buildings were gone, and they found a small adobe house where a young woman beckoned them. The caller reports that when their foot touched the threshold they merged with her. She then showed them an old woman dying on a bed, with the final, Cheyne-Stokes kind of breathing. The girl, the caller says, told them she was the last of the village, which drought, famine, and disease had emptied. The caller says the dream then turned bad. They felt trapped, and the faces of Mexican villagers came at them one after another, perhaps a hundred, and they felt the pain of each death. Asked if they slept there again, the caller says they did, because they wanted to get to the bottom of it. The caller says a dispatcher woke them at 1 a.m. over the speaker. The caller stumbled into the communications center drenched in sweat and crying, and told the dispatcher they thought they had been visited by a ghost. The dispatcher reportedly said the ghosts had been [quote withheld] that they felt something standing and watching them, and that they would no longer sleep in the dormitory. Art closes by saying that dispatch centers, as places of crisis and documented death, are places of haunting.
Reported events, in order
- 0:16
The caller says they are in Birch Bay, Washington, and describes working in a fire dispatch center.
- 1:18
The caller says the fire communications center stood on the banks of the Santa Ana River and that this was in 1984.
- 1:51
The caller notices that none of the dispatchers would sleep in the dormitory and that they seemed afraid of it, sleeping in hallways or the lounge.
- 2:16
About a week into the job, the intercom wakes them and they are told to sleep until noon before a 12-hour overtime shift.
- 2:32
In bed the caller feels something lay across their legs and hears a groan. The caller wakes and sees a fog-like form above their head in a pitch-dark room.
- 2:55
The caller goes out to the dispatch center. Colleagues exchange a look and tell the caller to go back to bed and that they will tell the caller about the ghost later.
- 3:19
On the next shift, shortly before 1 a.m., the caller has a vivid dream of walking the banks of the Santa Ana River and knowing it is 1864.
- 4:15
The caller sees a small adobe house. A young woman appears in the doorway and beckons the caller.
- 4:44
As their foot hits the threshold, the caller reports merging with her.
- 5:19
She separates from the caller and shows the caller an old woman dying on a bed, with Cheyne-Stokes breathing.
- 5:45
The girl tells the caller she was the last of the village, which had been struck by drought, famine, and disease. The survivors went up river.
- 6:20
The caller reports the dream turning bad. They feel trapped and scared and want to run from the dispatch center.
- 6:46
Faces of Mexican villagers come at the caller one after another, perhaps a hundred, and the caller feels the pain of each death.
- 7:11
Asked whether they slept there again, the caller says they did, because they wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on.
- 7:29
A dispatcher wakes the caller at 1 a.m. over the speaker, and the caller stumbles into the communications center drenched in sweat and crying.
- 7:46
The caller tells the dispatcher they think they were visited by a ghost. The dispatcher says the ghosts have been [quote withheld] reports feeling watched, and refuses to sleep in the dorm.
- 8:06
The caller concludes there is something there and that it is not just them. The caller adds that another dispatcher had their chest crushed in bed and spoke Spanish in their sleep.
- 8:22
Art ends the call and offers his own view that dispatch centers, as places of crisis and death, are places of haunting.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- interpretation· 0:49
The caller presents the story as both a ghost story and a time-travel story.
- observation· 2:32
The caller reports that, while asleep in the dispatch dormitory, they felt something lay across their legs and heard a groan.
- observation· 2:47
On waking the caller reports seeing a fog-like form above their head in a pitch-dark room.
- hearsay· 2:55
Colleagues reportedly told the caller to go back to bed and that they would tell the caller about the ghost later.
- observation· 3:26
In the dream the caller reports knowing it was 1864 and feeling wind, rustling leaves, and sand underfoot.
- observation· 4:52
The caller reports that, stepping onto the threshold, they merged with the young woman in the doorway.
- observation· 6:46
The caller reports faces of villagers coming at them and feeling the pain of their deaths, one after another.
- interpretation· 7:46
The caller told the dispatcher they thought they had been visited by a ghost.
- hearsay· 7:46
A dispatcher reportedly said something had been standing and watching them and that they would no longer sleep in the dormitory.
- hearsay· 8:10
The caller reports that another dispatcher had something crushing their chest in bed and spoke Spanish in their sleep during nightmares.
- host statement· 8:25
The host says a dispatch center, being a place of crisis where death is documented nearly hourly, is a place of haunting.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
The story is firsthand, told in order, and specific. But the events fit common sleep and dream explanations unusually well, and the caller credits a ghost or time travel without weighing those alternatives.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand story by the person who says they experienced it.
- Concrete details: the year 1984, the Santa Ana River, a fire communications center, and a described 24-hour shift pattern.
- The sequence holds together and answers the host's questions without contradiction.
- The caller separates the dream from what they did physically: [quote withheld]
- The caller describes the core episode as a dream: [quote withheld]
- Sleep-related sensations fit the event in bed closely: the caller was woken from sleep, felt something on their legs, and saw the form on waking.
- The colleague's reported chest pressure and sleep-talking is a further sleep-related detail.
- Several lines of the automatic transcript are garbled or merged between speakers, so some details cannot be fully checked.
- It is unclear whether the dispatcher with the crushed chest is the same person who reported feeling watched.
- 1:20
- 3:19
- 7:46
What the model inferred (not said on air): Scores by part: closeness to events 22 (direct participant), specificity 14, consistency 14, other explanations 6 (ordinary sleep explanations fit easily), calibration 6. No cap applies because the story is not presented as a joke or fiction and is not secondhand.
Only the caller's word, plus claimed witnesses who do not speak and place and date details that were not checked. This falls in the 11 to 25 range, and no outside check was done.
Evidence for and against
- Details that could in principle be checked are given: 1984, the Santa Ana River, a fire communications center on its banks, and a stated shift schedule.
- A second person is claimed to have had related experiences.
- No documentation, recording, photograph, or physical trace is offered or examined.
- The claimed second witness does not speak on air. Only the caller reports what the dispatcher said.
- The transcript alone does not show whether the workplace and dates could be checked.
- 1:18
- 7:46
What the model inferred (not said on air): I placed it at 15 because names, dates, and places are given but nothing has been verified and no second witness speaks on air. The hard cap of 50 is not approached.
A dark dormitory, an unseen contact in bed, a deathbed scene, and a mass of dying faces build steady dread. The warm merging episode and the lack of any described harm soften it.
Evidence for and against
- Dispatchers are said to be afraid of the dormitory and to sleep in hallways.
- Something unseen lays across the caller's legs in the dark.
- The dream of a dying woman and a hundred villagers' faces, with the caller feeling their deaths, is sustained and distressing.
- The story ends unresolved, with the caller saying they wanted to [quote withheld] of it.
- The dream has warm, positive moments: [quote withheld]
- No physical harm or threat to a child is reported.
- The transcript's broken lines make the pacing and intensity of the dream hard to judge precisely.
- 2:32
- 6:56
- 7:29
What the model inferred (not said on air): Rated in the middle range: unsettling imagery and an unresolved ending, but no threat, physical attack, or harm to a child.
A familiar haunted-workplace frame carries an unusual mix: a dream of a village long ago, a merging with a caregiver, and a mass death sequence.
Evidence for and against
- The dream's 1864 setting and the merging with a young woman caring for the last dying villager are distinctive.
- The sequence of a hundred villagers' faces and the felt pain of each death is unusual.
- The claimed link between a modern emergency dispatch center and an 1864 “emergency” is a rare framing.
- A haunted workplace or dormitory where staff avoid sleeping is a familiar frame.
- Contact in bed and a vivid dream are stock elements.
- The published originality score is provisional while the archive is small.
- 0:27
- 5:45
- 6:56
What the model inferred (not said on air): Provisional score of 55: familiar frame plus distinctive details. The comparison with the rest of the archive cannot be worked out from this part of the broadcast alone.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.65 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's firsthand story only.; No documentation, recording, or photograph is offered or examined.; A second witness (a fellow dispatcher) is claimed but does not speak on air.; No outside check was done..
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- Sensations while falling asleep or waking up (dream imagery or sleep paralysis) during a broken sleep schedule on 24-hour shifts. · The caller says they were woken from sleep, felt something lay across their legs, heard a groan, and on waking saw a fog-like form. The caller's later story of a colleague with pressure on the colleague's chest and sleep-talking fits the same pattern.
- Vivid dreaming by a tired night-shift worker, with dream content built from the geography outside the building. · The caller describes the 1864 sequence as a dream, around 1 a.m., while sleeping between shifts.
- Co-workers' earlier talk and shared expectations about the dormitory may have primed the caller. · Before the dream, colleagues told the caller to go back to bed and that they would explain “the ghost later,” and other dispatchers were avoiding the dormitory.
What stands out
The story links a modern 24-hour emergency dispatch center to what the caller calls a [quote withheld] It also includes a merging with a young caregiver in the dream, not a conventional ghost.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.