Great Fire of 1852

The Great Fire of 1852 was a fire in Montreal that began on July 8, 1852, and left as many as 10,000 people homeless (at a time when the city's population was only 57,000) and destroyed almost half of the city's housing. The fire occurred at a time when the city's recently-constructed reservoir, located at the site of today's Saint-Louis Square, was drained and closed for repairs. The first fire broke out at a tavern on St. Lawrence Boulevard and spread quickly, fanned by strong winds and hot, dry summer weather.

The fire that started on St. Lawrence originated from a wooden house, as was typical at the time. It spread from there to the block in between Saint Denis Street and Craig Street (now Saint Antoine Street). The flames engulfed the Saint Jacques Cathedral, the hospital on Dorchester Street and the Theatre Royal. Within hours, one quarter of Montreal was destroyed.

Montreal was founded in 1642. Wealthy French-Canadians moved to the area in search of a new place to settle. The new colony formed a government and educational system, which grew as the years went on. Later on in Montreal's history, the diversity of citizens increased as work became more available. This meant mostly Irish and Chinese, who came to North America in search of work but ironically were the ones who were most affected by the fire. Prior to Great Fire of 1852, there were several other fires and problems that occurred. The most notable was when the Parliament building was set ablaze in 1849. The city was in economic turmoil and this left houses and stores with out any business or tenants. Following the parliament building blaze, there were four more major blazes in the early 1850s that consumed many of Montreal's housing districts. These fires destroyed over 350 different buildings in the span of two years. This, however, was nowhere near the amount of homes engulfed by the Great Fire of July 8 and 9 of 1852.

The Montreal Fire Brigade originated as a volunteer service which was not particularly effective in combating fires. Early on, the only way to obtain water was by going to public water pumps, private wells, or to a nearby river or lake. While combating fires, it would be incredibly difficult for volunteer firefighters to go from the burning houses, back to the water supply, and back again to the blaze. This would take too much time, allowing the fire to rage on. One way to solve this problem was to have carters going from the water supply to the homes in Montreal. These carters would carry buckets of water to the city and try to get there before any other carters could. This was due to the incentive of three dollars extra pay for getting there first. This of course would cause for the carters to rush, not fill the bucket all the way, or spill some of the water on their way over to the house. Spilling water would cause major problems while fighting fires because there would not be enough to put out a house fire and once they ran out of water, the fire would rage out of control.

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