The Great Fire of Toronto, 1904

On the evening of April 19, 1904, a Toronto police constable on patrol spotted flames rising from the elevator shaft of a necktie factory at 58 Wellington Street West — the start of the largest fire in the city's history.

A department badly outmatched

Fanned by strong winds, the fire spread rapidly through blocks of densely packed, largely wood-floored commercial buildings between Bay, Yonge, Wellington and Front streets. Toronto's fire department was badly under-equipped for a blaze of this scale — the city had only about five steam fire engines, compared with far larger fleets in Montreal and Buffalo. Mayor Thomas Urquhart appealed to neighbouring cities for help; Buffalo sent two pumpers, 27 firefighters and 2,000 feet of hose by rail, helping save buildings along Yonge and Front, including the 1885 Bank of Montreal building that today houses the Hockey Hall of Fame. It took roughly nine hours to bring the fire under control.

The damage

The fire burned through roughly 20 acres of Toronto's industrial core. Sources vary on the exact building count — estimates range from about 100 to over 120 — but all agree it put well over 200 businesses out of commission and left thousands of workers temporarily or permanently jobless. Remarkably, only one death was recorded despite the scale of destruction; estimated losses ran to roughly $10 million in 1904 dollars.

Rebuilding, fireproofed

The fire prompted a rapid overhaul of fire-safety regulation: insurers and the Toronto Board of Underwriters met just three days later, and new building codes mandating more fire-resistant construction followed. The rebuilt district emerged with sturdier, more fireproof warehouse buildings, several of which still stand in Toronto's Fashion and Warehouse District today.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Great Fire of Toronto (1904)
• City of Toronto — The Great Fire of 1904 (online exhibit)
• Toronto Public Library — Remembering the Great Fire of Toronto (1904)