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The Fire At St. John, New Brunswick (Photograph
of the Customs House after the
fire.)
Illustrated London News, July 28, 1877.
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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