Walking Tour
The Great Fire of Vancouver
When Vancouver was Destroyed
Andrew Farris
Vancouver Archives AM1535-: CVA 99-2452
On a quiet Sunday in June 1886, the newly-incorporated city of Vancouver was completely destroyed. A raging fire, whipped up by relentless winds and fueled by tinder-dry conditions, swept through the city, consuming all but a handful of buildings and killing some 28 people.
The dramatic opening chapter in Vancouver's history is often glossed over, but thanks to Lisa Anne Smith's recently published book, Vancouver is Ashes, that has changed. Her meticulous research allows us to pinpoint where individuals were on that day and follow in their footsteps as they fled the raging inferno.
In this tour we will follow in those footsteps. We'll learn about life in Vancouver's pioneer days, hear the harrowing tales of the people who lived through the fire, and see how Vancouver recovered and prospered, laying the groundwork for the city we know today.
This project is a partnership with the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association.
1. Birth of a City
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: Str P241
1886
* * *
John Deighton's nickname "Gassy" came from his talent for endlessly telling stories. Gassy Jack's eventful life meant he had no shortage of material to captivate his audience. Born in Yorkshire, England, Jack's adventures included captaining ships around the world, prospecting for gold in two gold rushes, winning a vast fortune and losing it in San Francisco's red light district, and opening the Globe Saloon pub in New Westminster. Going on vacation in 1867, he entrusted his beloved saloon to an American friend. Unfortunately, this his vacation coincided with the July 4 weekend, and when Jack returned he found that the Independence Day party had gotten out of control and his saloon had been destroyed.
So Jack got in a rowboat with his wife, and a barrel of whiskey, and rowed all the way around to Burrard Inlet. He spotted a beautiful patch of maple trees just west of the mill and determined that this was to be the sight of the second Globe Saloon. Calling the workers over from the mill, he declared that if they would build him a pub, they could drink as much whiskey as they could handle in a sitting. The thirsty men needed no encouragement: that very same day the new Globe Saloon was complete and open for business. The seed of Vancouver had been planted.1
2. Pushing Back the Forest
Vancouver Archives AM336-S3-2-: CVA 677-516
1868
* * *
The loggers would find a particularly big tree and fell it in such a manner that it would knock down smaller trees on its way down, like felling a line of gargantuan living dominos. The branches would then be sawed off and dumped into piles of 'slash', like the one you can see in the foreground of the photo above. Some of these slash piles eventually stood three storeys tall.1
The trunks would then be fired down a skid that led to the water so they could be floated to the mill for harvesting. Logs this large were highly prized, especially for ship's masts. Some of the finest were shipped to Beijing to renovate the Forbidden Palace.
All the while a trickle of enterprising pioneers began to settle around Gassy Jack's saloon. Slowly the nucleus of a community took shape. In honour of Gassy Jack, the new inhabitants took to calling the place Gastown.
3. The Clearing Fires
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: Str P202
1886
* * *
The new arrivals set to work clearing the debris left behind by the loggers: The piles of slash were burned, the tree stumps were filled with dynamite and blown up, and the ground was flattened out.
In those days the acrid clouds of smoke from the clearing fires constantly filled the city. For Vancouverites the smoky morning of June 13, 1886, was little different from any other. Crews worked diligently on two clearing fires, one at Cordova and Cambie and another near the Yaletown Roundhouse, gritting their teeth as a fierce south-westerly wind blew blinding, choking smoke into their faces. Equipped with pails of water, wet blankets and pick-axes, their job was to control the fire as it burned.
The Cambie and Cordova crew had to keep pulling more and more water from the pump at the nearby Regina Hotel as their fire grew bigger. You can see the Regina Hotel in the photo above, the taller three-storey building on the right side with the dark walls and light roof. As the wind began to blow harder the men began to get worried.
4. Losing Control
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: Dist P166
1886
* * *
The men at the bar, used to frequent fire alarms, murmured and returned to their pints uninterested. Only after intense pleading was Cary able to get a few of them to finish their beers, roll up their sleeves, and step outside. What they saw shocked them: A wall of flame towered over the edge of town and the work crew had hastily withdrawn from the leading edge of the fire. They were now frantically scraping a futile firebreak between the flames and the town. Others were atop the Regina Hotel covering it in a mosaic of wet blankets to protect it from sparks. The situation was quickly growing dire. As Cary and the men from the saloon sprinted back up the quiet street to help confront the city's impending doom, curious heads peeped out of doorways to see what all the ruckus was about.
5. Run for Your Lives!
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: Str P8
1886
* * *
In those chaotic minutes as the city burned, Devine was unable to set up his bulky camera and take any photographs. After the flames had died down however, he was created an invaluable photographic record of this historic event. Just eleven days after the fire on June 24 he placed an ad in the Vancouver Daily News, which had remarkably succeeded in re-establishing itself only a few days after the fire. "Photographs of the City of Vancouver before and after the fire can be had at our tent on Cordova street."1
6. Saving his Photographs
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: Str N59
1887
* * *
His shop was stocked at great expense with every sort of toiletry and medicine a person in 1886 could need. Fearing the imminent loss of his inventory, he hurriedly started gathering up all the bottles and boxes he could and lugged them down to the water's edge, just on the other side of Water Street. He did not have much time: the fire was coming fast.
7. Vancouver Burns
Vancouver Archives AM1376-: CVA 178-2.8
1895
* * *
The first issue of the Vancouver Daily News published after the fire described the scene at Hastings Mill:
"On the steamers and wharves, while the city was a mass of roaring flames, where gathered hundreds of frightened and excited men and sobbing women and children. Anon, there emerged from the dense smoke one and another, GASPING AND BLINDED, with singed hair and blistered hands and faces, who had struggled almost too long to save property…"2
8. A Close Shave
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: Hot P7
1887
* * *
Campbell wasted no time. He ran to his wagon and hitched up his horse, covering its eyes to keep it from seeing the terrifying flames and bolting. Together they galloped up to Water Street to Scoullar's and loaded up as many crates of dynamite as they could fit. Hopping back on the wagon, Campbell ushered his blinded horse down the chaotic street, swerving crazily to avoid hitting panicked people running every which way. All the time showers of sparks rained down on him and his volatile cargo.
Vancouver's surgeon Dr. McGuigan had ignored all the shouting and settled down in the Sunnyside Hotel for a relaxing Sunday nap. Suddenly his friend John Blake burst into the room: "What in the world are you doing! The town is burning down all around us! The roof next door is on fire! Get your stuff packed as quickly as you can or you'll be burned right here with your boots on!"2
McGuigan blinked disbelievingly at Blake for a moment and was about to open his mouth to say something when, as if in answer to his question, the roof suddenly caved in and flames burst through the ceiling, showering the two in sparks and burning splinters. McGuigan was now fully awake and leapt to his feet. Making for the exit, he ran for his office to grab his doctor's instruments—they were sure to come in useful in the days ahead.
9. Firefighting
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: FD P45
1897
* * *
After the fire Vancouver took firefighting much more seriously. A stringent fire code was implemented, the latest fire engines were acquired and the fire crews were trained to an impressive degree of efficiency. Before World War I, an international commission ranked Vancouver's fire department the third best in the world, after London in England, and Leipzig in Germany.1
On this windy day in June however, the volunteer firefighters were no better equipped to save the city than any random bystander.
10. Maple Tree Square
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: Str P83
1886
* * *
11. The Aftermath
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: LGN 1045
1886
* * *
New Westminster was connected to Vancouver by a long, rutted road, today's Kingsway. That city's inhabitants, learning of the fire via telegraph, immediately set about filling wagons of relief supplies, including food, clothing, and tents for shelter, and dispatched them to the burning city. The supplies would arrive just before nightfall, a gratefully welcomed succour for the Vancouver's homeless citizens.
In the days that followed steamers from Nanaimo, Victoria and even the United States poured into the harbour loaded with supplies. People all along the West Coast came to Vancouver's aid, a kindness that would not soon be forgotten by the city's beleaguered inhabitants.
12. Rebuilding
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: SGN 123
1886
* * *
In response a relief fund was immediately established and succeeded in raising thousands of dollars within days. Help came too from the CPR, which donated $3,000 to reconstruction.
Hours after the fire Mayor MacLean sent a telegram to Prime Minister John A. MacDonald pleading for aid. "Our city is ashes," it read. "Three thousand people homeless. Can you send us any government aid?"1
To our modern eyes it is almost shocking that the prime minister did not immediately reply. The mayor sent another telegram, and then another. Finally, eleven days later, the mayor received a short telegram from Ottawa, announcing a contribution of $5,000. It's a reminder of how much less responsibility the federal government felt it owed to its citizens 130 years ago.2
13. Vancouver is Ashes
Vancouver Archives AM54-S4-: GF P8
1886
* * *
"Probably never since the days of Pompeii and Herculaneum was a town WIPED OUT OF EXISTENCE so completely and suddenly as was Vancouver on Sunday…
"Like nearly all others who had started business in the new city, however, we perceive that the fire, whatever may be its effect upon individuals, is to the city as a whole not a very serious matter, in fact it can scarcely impede the progress of Vancouver at all. A few months, or even a few weeks, will restore the city to as good a basis as it was on before the fire. "
Endnotes
1. Birth of a City
1. Bannerman, Gary. Gastown: The 107 years. 1974. P. 12.
2. Pushing Back the Forest
1. Smith, Lisa A. Vancouver is Ashes: The Great Fire of 1886. Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2014. P. 5.
3. The Clearing Fires
1. Macdonald, Norbert. "A Critical Growth Cycle for Vancouver, 1900-1914." BC Studies. No. 17, Spring 1975, 26-42. P. 26.
2. Donaldson, Jesse. "Land of Destiny." The Dependent Magazine. 18 Jan. 2012. Online.
4. Losing Control
1. Smith, 13,
5. Run for Your Lives!
2. Smith, 118.
7. Vancouver Burns
1. Davis, Chuck. The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver. Vancouver: Coastal Publishing, 2011.
2. Smith, 118.
8. A Close Shave
1. Davis.
2. Smith, 37.
9. Firefighting
1. Davis.
12. Rebuilding
1. Smith, 72.
2. Smith, 105.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Bannerman, Gary. Gastown: The 107 years. 1974
Davis, Chuck. The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver. Vancouver: Coastal Publishing, 2011.
Donaldson, Jesse. "Land of Destiny." The Dependent Magazine. 18 Jan. 2012. Online.
Macdonald, Norbert. "A Critical Growth Cycle for Vancouver, 1900-1914." BC Studies. No. 17, Spring 1975, 26-42.
Smith, Lisa A. Vancouver is Ashes: The Great Fire of 1886. Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2014.