The Great Fire of Saint John was an urban fire that devastated much of

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John () is a port#seaport, seaport city located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. It is Canada's oldest Municipal corporation, incorporated city, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign ...

in June 1877, destroying two-fifths of the city.

Fire

On June 16, 1877, according to a schoolboy known only as "Harry", an elderly

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

chief spoke to a number of boys, telling them to warn their parents to move away before Saint John is destroyed on June 19. At 2:30 on the afternoon of June 20, 1877, a spark fell in Henry Fairweather's storehouse in the York Point Slip area. Nine hours later the fire had destroyed over and 1,612 structures including eight churches, six banks, fourteen hotels, eleven

schooners A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail ...

and four wood boats. The fire had killed approximately 19 people, and injured many more people. Approximately 13,000 people were left homeless as a result of the fire. The fire continued to burn for approximately 40 hours.''The Rebuilding of Saint John New Brunswick 1877-1881'' by C. Anne Hale published 1990 No photographs exist of the fire. However, some survivors' accounts of the blaze tell that the fire came so close to the

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

that it looked like the water was on fire.

Aftermath and legacy

Saint John's

Trinity Royal Heritage Conservation Area The Trinity Royal Heritage Conservation Area is a historic district in Saint John, New Brunswick's uptown. The City of Saint John designated the area as the city's first heritage conservation area in 1982; it has since expanded in area. Surroundin ...

was built out of the ashes of the fire.

References

Citations

Works cited

* * * {{coord, 45.259, N, 66.070, W, display=title

External links

The Story of the Great Fire in St. John, N.B., June 20th, 1877 by George Stewart - Available through Project Gutenberg

The Great fire on website.nbm-mnb.ca

St. John, N. B., Burned
,

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...