A fire that began around 11 p.m. the night before in haystacks stored on the Front Street wharf spreads along the waterfront and destroys much of western Canada’s oldest town.
Roughly one-third of the city, from Royal Avenue to the waterfront, had burned to the ground. No lives were lost but damage was estimated at 2.5 million dollars. Some stone buildings, including the Queen Hotel and the Burr Block, survived the fire and remain as historic buildings to this day.
The city’s downtown core suffered another huge fire in October 2013 that wiped out half a block of Columbia Street.
