Tag: Brian Evoy

As I research the history of the neighbourhood from the beginning of the 20th century when the Ashbridge’s and Small estates were broken up for housing, I’m struck by just how many fires there were. This makes sense at a time when many houses were tarpaper shacks, built closely together in Shacktowns and even more substantial houses were had roofs of wooden shingles. Coal and wood fueled furnaces and chimney fires were common. So I’m posting some of those fires street by street. I start with Vernon Pankey on 2100 Gerrard Street East, injured in a fire on February 21, 1948, four years before I was born.

I am focusing on residential, business and some small factory fires. Brickyard fires were so common that they deserve a post of their own.

William “Stinky” Harris’s glue factory at Coxwell and Danforth was susceptible to fire as fats and oils rendered from animal carcasses are very inflammable. Sometimes our neighbourhood even appeared in the Big Apple news: Losses by Fire. Toronto, Ontario, Sept. 22—Harris’s glue factory, on Danforth Avenue, was completely destroyed by fire this morning. Loss,$25,000.00; partially insured.  New York Times, September 23, 1900.

The glue factory on Danforth Road burned down on September 22, 1900, causing about $6,000 worth of damage, a considerable sum at the time. The factory was a three-story brick building, 125 feet long and 60 feet wide, just outside the city limits, on “glebe land”. About 40 men were thrown out of work by the fire. Toronto Star, Saturday, September 22, 1900

WIllfong fire, Globe, January 4, 1909

At the time Erie Terrace (later renamed Craven Road) was too narrow for the City’s fire trucks to drive on. So this narrow street, known as “Bootlegger’s Alley”, with shacks packed in side by side was particularly vulnerable to conflagrations that could quickly spread from house to house.

Brush and grass fires were common. Embers and coals flying off of the trains started many such blazes, but people also set fires to clear weeds and overgrowth as well as leaves in autumn. Sometimes they got out of hand. As well children playing with matches and the occasional arsonist played a role.

Belle Ewart was an ice company that used teams of horses to deliver ice across the city. Stables were and still are very vulnerable to fires with lots of hay and straw. Sometimes in hot weather fires even started by spontaneous combustion. And horses are notorious for panicking in a fire and need expert help to get out or they will run back into the flames. A barn or stable makes a death trap for livestock, horrifying to watch.

Below: Fire at the Acme Ruler Company, Globe and Mail, June 11, 1942

Some fires like the one at the lumberyard at Drayton and Hanson Street in May 1948 were spectacular. But in this case neighbours worked together to save each other’s property and lives too.

Fires at Christmas were common with highly combustible trees and decorations. Even if the only victim was a budgie, it would have traumatized the children. (I know. My home burned when I was in Grade Three.)

Generally my coverage of historical events ends in the early 1970s because of copyright restrictions. It’s not that fires stopped happening.