The Story of the Great Fire in St. John, N.B., June 20th, 1877Stewart, George
History
The Story of the Great Fire in St. John, N.B., June 20th, 1877
Stewart, George
Saint John (N.B.) -- Fire, 1877
their afflicted relatives meet with the sympathy of all.
Mr. Turnbull's loss is very heavy and foots up fully twenty-five
thousand dollars. He lost absolutely everything he possessed, and the
deeds and bank-notes which he had in his safe were all burned. He does
not despair now of being able to retrieve himself in some way. He was
the first man to erect a wooden shanty and send a flag flying from its
summit.
A large number of persons escaped from the resistless and giant-striding
flames by means of rafts and small boats. Others got a friendly sail to
Partridge Island in the tugs and steamers which approached the wharves
whenever it was safe to do so. Many of those who were on Reed's Point
Wharf and the Ballast Wharf got away in this manner.
The contingent of firemen from Portland worked with a will, and did much
to check the flames--as much, indeed, as mortal man could do in a fire
like this, with a high wind blowing a perfect gale all the time. The
city firemen performed, with their brethren of the adjacent town, signal
service. They drew lines round the burning buildings and tried again and
again to confine the fire to one place, and prevent its spread. But the
effort was futile. The flames broke down the lines, rose up in a hundred
new places, and drove the firemen and their engines away from the spot.
Some splendid work was performed in the vicinity of King Street East,
and down towards Pitt. Here they were partly successful, and did all
that could be done under the circumstances. Many of them are heavy
losers, having lost everything they had in their own houses, while they
were engaged in trying to save those of others. In a fire which never
ceased to rage at its height until it came to the water's brink, and
which poured an unceasing stream of flame for nine steady hours, and
which burned in fifteen sections of the city at once, it was a
difficult matter for them with only four engines, to do anything like
stopping the conflagration until it had spent itself, no matter how
efficient and perfect the organization might be. No one expected the
firemen to accomplish anything. There was something in the air which
seemed to breed a sort of contagion, and the fire paralyzed buildings in
a moment, and no one could tell how they caught. The fire struck men
down where they were standing, and an invisible heat bore to the earth
the trees on the sideways.
CHAPTER XIII.
A Chapter of Incidents--Agony on Board--Coming Up the Harbour
--The Story of the Moths--The Newly Married Lady's Story--No
Flour--Moving Out--Saving the Drugs--The Man with the
Corn-Plasters--Incendiarism--Scenes--Thievery--The Newspapers
--Enterprise--Blowing Down the Walls--An Act of Bravery--The
Fatal Blast--Danger and Death in the Walls--Accidents--The Fire
and the Churches--The Ministers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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