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The Fire At St. John, New Brunswick
(Illustrated London News, July 28, 1877)
The article below is taken from the Illustrated London News as it was reported on, July 28, 1877. The article gives us a perspective of the devastation that our fore fathers had to endure.
The destruction by
fire on the 29th ult. of the best part of the town of St. John, the
capital of New Brunswick, has been, during several weeks past, a theme of
regretful comment. A view of the city and harbour appeared in our Journal three
weeks ago. We have received from a colonial correspondent, Mr. Forshaw Day, of
Halifax, sketches of the ruins in Market-square and King-street, and those of
the Victoria Hotel and several public buildings. The detailed accounts of this
conflagration have borne out the first estimate of the magnitude of the
disaster. The public buildings destroyed are more than five and twenty,
including the Post Office, the City Building, the Custom House, and four banks.
Hardly any of the business premises have been saved. The offices, plant, and
stock of six newspapers have been swept away. Private houses have not suffered
to so large an extent as public buildings; but it is calculated that nearly
half the ordinary dwellings have been burnt down, and half the population of
the town has been rendered homeless. The fire broke out at half-past two in the
afternoon of that Wednesday, and raged uninterruptedly throughout that
afternoon and night, and was not finally mastered till the evening of
Thursday.
We read exciting accounts of the rapidity with which the flames
spread; how, sweeping from street to street, they fastened on one of the
wharves, which they enveloped in a few moments; then caught the masts of ship
after ship lying alongside, till they formed a bridge of fire over an arm of
the water; how they sped along rows of wooden houses and overthrew them "as if
felled by a hurricane;" how the sparks lodged in the steeples of the churches,
which burnt downwards from the top without possibility of aid; how the fire
occasionally caught the two sides of a street simultaneously, and then a
fearful race was run between the competing flames, until both sides of the
street were destroyed. And we can imagine how, as the flames spread, the
frightened people poured in ever increasing numbers out into the streets:
bedding, chairs, tables, and furniture of all kinds were dragged from the
burning houses and piled in the squares and open spaces; merchants were rushing
to save their books at any rate, if their stores were past saving; bankers were
endeavouring to rescue from the vaults and strong rooms of their doomed banks
their boxes of specie and bundles of notes and bonds; while the saddest sight
of all was found in the numbers of sick, aged, and inform, who were hurried
hither and thither by their anxious friends in the doubtful hope of finding a
place of safety for them. It is difficult to imagine anything more terrible
than the spectacle must have been during the night, with nearly half the
population homeless and panic-stricken in the streets, and the fire still
advancing and threatening to destroy the whole of the town. Happily, but few
lives were lost; twenty seems to be the outside. But the loss of property was
immense: it is estimated at 15,000,000 dols., of which hardly more than
5,000,000 dols. Is covered by the various insurances. Many other cities of the
Canadian Dominion, and of the United States, have raised large subscriptions
for the relief of the destitute families. The London Mansion House Fund, for
this benevolent object, amounts to £6250.
Our small Engraving is a plan of the southern parts of the city; and the portion destroyed by the fire is shown by a dark shading. The fire began at the north-west corner (upper left-hand corner of the Engraving) at York Point Slip, close to Mill-street. It spread over the wharves in that quarter, to the Market Slip, where it consumed much shipping, and the masts of the vessels carried the fire across the water to buildings on the south side. Water-street, market-square, King-street, and Prince William-street were thus attacked, and were presently filled with devouring flames. A violent west wind drove the conflagration quite across that part of the city. In traversing Duke-street, past the Victoria Hotel, and in sweeping over Germain-street and Charlotte-street it destroyed a vast amount of property. The conflagration finally stopped on the shore of Courtenay Bay. The following are amongst the public buildings burnt:-Post Office, Bank of New Brunswick, City Building, Custom House, Maritime Bank Building, in which are this bank and that of Montreal and Nova Scotia, School Trustees' office; Bank of Nova Scotia, new building; Academy of Music in which was the Knights of Pythias' Hall; Victoria Hotel, Oddfellows' Hall, No. 1 Engine House; Orange hall, King-street; Temperance Hall, King-street East; Dramatic Lyceum, Victoria School-House, Temple of Honour Hall, Barnes's Hotel, Royal Hotel, St. John Hotel, Acadia Hotel, New Brunswick House, Bay-View Hotel, International Hotel, Wiggins's Orphan Asylum, and the Deaf and Dumb Institution. The churches burnt are Trinity, St. Andrew's, Methodist, on Germain-street; Baptist church, Germain-street; Christian church, Duke-street; St. James's Church, Leinster-street; Baptist church, the centenary church, St. Philip's, Carmarthen-street Mission Methodist church, Pitt-street Mission church, St. David's Church, Reformed Presbyterian church, and Sheffield-street Mission House.
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