Sandy Santori remembers the dark cloud that covered Trail, B.C., beginning May 18, 1980. It filled the sky with a colourless gloom, as fine ash fell to the ground.

"It was just no sunshine. It was just gloomy, grey, black. It was scary," he said.

Santori was 26 years old, and first learned of the situation when his mother called him out of the house. There was a scene on the street. His neighbours, mostly Italian Canadians, were hurriedly covering their freshly planted gardens, unsure where the f…