“STOP BURNING OF DEBRIS FROM HOTEL,” North Bay Nugget. January 10, 1931. Page 3. ---- Police Think Some Human Remains May Be In Ruins ---- Cochrane, Jan. 15. — (Staff Special) — Police on Thursday, acting under orders from Coroner Tucker, extinguished a fire in the basement of the Queen’s Hotel in which James Palangio, the proprietor, was burning rubbish removed from the debris which fills the basement to a depth of a couple of feet .The fire was set on almost the exact spot from which three feet, but no bodies, were recovered by firemen who searched the ruins following the early morning blaze which destroyed the hotel on December 29, The coroner thought it possible that there might be some other remains there that had been overlooked by the firemen and feared that they would be destroyed by the bonfire.
Mr Palangio is clearing away the debris preparatory to re-building a fire-proof structure on the site of the old building. There is a great deal of partly burned lumber, clothing, etc., and rather than cart it away it away, it was being burned on the spot.