February 28, 2018 – Today’s challenge was to do some research about your city or a city that you like to regularly visit. I researched Calgary.
The Calgary Fire of November 7, 1886
Calgary was a small town. The downtown was located around 9th Avenue SE & Centre St. There weren’t a lot of buildings. On the day of the fire, Calgary was getting ready to celebrate the second anniversary of its incorporation and the first anniversary of the CP Rail last spike ceremony commemorating the construction of the railway.
Prior to the fire, Calgary had been in political turmoil. There had been an election in January 1886. George Murdoch, the incumbent, won the popular vote. However, newly-appointed Judge Jeremiah Travis alleged the mayor and his team were corrupt, disqualified the candidates, and Murdoch’s rival, James Reilly, was chosen to be mayor. The corruption allegations against Murdoch included being involved in the illegal sale of alcohol and running a protection racket with the chief of police.
Unfortunately, Murdoch and his crew refused to resign. (I didn’t know you could do that.) So the City of Calgary was without proper governance for most of 1886. A special election was held in October 1886 and George Clift King was elected as Mayor.
I’m sure you’re wondering why the political turmoil was significant to the fire.
Well….While the town was in political limbo, they ordered a fire engine. The fire engine was delivered but sat in a shed at the CP Rail Yard because nobody had authority to pay for it. On November 7th, when the fire erupted, it was still sitting in storage because, even though political structure had been restored, nobody had gotten around to paying for it.
In 1886, all of the buildings in Calgary were made of wood. When the fire erupted it spread quickly. Townsfolk sprang into action and the fire engine was taken from the rail yard and put into action. In addition, they decided to build a firebreak to stop the fire from spreading. Ironically, the firebreak required the demolition of the former mayor’s harness shop. Reports indicate that Murdoch helped tear down his own building for the greater good.
After the fire was over, 18 buildings were damaged/destroyed. At that time, that was a majority of the downtown. After the fire, the Town agreed that buildings would no longer be made of wood but would be made of sandstone.
Diary of a DOW 