What was Burnaby like during the post-war industrial period? Longtime Burnaby resident Terry Rea knows, and he will be sharing his memories of working at a local steel mill at an event hosted by the Burnaby Historical Society.
"You're going to be quite surprised to find we actually did have a steel mill in Burnaby," Rea said. "I may be the last surviving person who used to work there."
Rea, 77, got a job at the mill as a teen with the help of his father, who worked there as an electrician. Rea stayed for 35 years before he moved onto his next job at Trev Deeley Motorcycles.
Vancouver Steel used to be at the south end of Alpha Avenue, in Burnaby's Still Creek area, which was a heavy industrial area.
"In those days, it was a hand mill. Everything was done by hand expect the pouring of the steel. ... Nowadays, most of this stuff is automated," Dea said. "In those days, just after the war, we weren't a throw-away society the way we are today. We reclaimed scrap metal and made reusable product again."
The mill eventually moved to Mitchell Island in Richmond, and then shut down in 1988.
The Burnaby Historical Society event is on Wed. Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Carousel Room at the Burnaby Village Museum, at 6501 Deer Lake Ave. Admission is free.
