You can’t blame this fire on Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicking over a lantern in the barn, but you can blame the great fire of Beeton in 1892 on failure to properly maintain a chimney.
In the late 19th century, quite a few towns and even larger cities in Ontario experienced devastating fires that burned much of the town to the ground.
The threat of fire was constant in many towns during that time. People were still using open fires and coal to heat homes, and industry did not have the safety measures in place we have now. Along with buildings of wood construction in close proximity and the fact that outdoor storage of materials and waste products were common, many towns were a blaze just waiting to happen.
All was quiet in Beeton during the early morning hours of Oct. 19, 1892 – quiet until someone in the Hipwell residence on Main Street decided to start a fire to boil some water.
The residence was also a store and was located on the north side of Main Street. Mr. Hipwell was a grain merchant.
A fire broke out in the chimney with flames shooting skyward fuelled by a build-up of creosote in the chimney flue. The chimney fire itself wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but a north-west wind blew embers from the fire across the street that landed on other buildings and more fires were started.
At the time, Beeton didn’t have a fire brigade. A fire brigade wasn’t established until 1897.
Local residents responded to the emergency and were forced to try a “bucket brigade” system of getting the fires under control.
But the fire began working its way east down Main Street as residents frantically tried to get the situation under control.
An urgent message was sent to the mayor of Barrie as well as the Grand Trunk Railway requesting assistance.
Around 3 a.m., a telegram was received at the Grand Trunk Railway office in Allandale stating that Beeton was on fire with a request for assistance. Firefighters arrived at the Barrie train station and were transported to Beeton – arriving one hour and 55 minutes after they received the call.
Around 4 a.m., a Barrie fire truck arrived with a complement of nine men. They arrived to face an inferno that was blazing on both sides of the street. Their immediate action helped stop the spread of flames to new buildings.
Several buildings were saved because of alleyways between buildings that created a fire break.
After Hipwell’s store and residence burned to the ground, it was followed by Baxter’s Hotel and stable.
The fire quickly spread to a couple of private residences.
Mitchells Furniture Shop went up in flames, as did the Phillips Brother’s Taylor Shop and residence, Scott’s General Store, and the Commercial Hotel. The last building to be lost was Ashton’s Drug Store.
By morning, most of the fire was under control, but a lot of damage had already been done and much of downtown Beeton was in ruins.
The fire took less than four hours to do all the damage. Around 18 buildings were lost, including the town hall.
Around 18 private residences were destroyed.
Damage was pegged at a little over $50,000 – a sizable amount for the time.
It was reported that the destruction was so complete that no bricks or timbers were left standing above the foundation walls after the fire.
Many people worked through the night to help remove furnishing and property from burning buildings.
Apparently not all the men in town were up to the task of helping put out the fire. An article in the local newspaper, The Record Sentinel/Times, published the morning after the fire, praised local women for the “heroic way in which they ‘manned’ the water buckets and put to shame the useless drones of whom the crowd contained quite a number of representatives.”
The article also mentioned the efforts to save property by the few, while “a greater number looked on with idle indifference.”
A photo of the fire that was published with the story also noted, sarcastically, that people were standing around watching instead of taking an active effort to save their town.
There’s no word on the fate of Mr. Hipwell, whose flaming chimney started the great fire that destroyed much of the town.
Brian Lockhart, New Tecumseth Times, Local Journalism Initiative. The LJI is a federally funded program.
