The Story of Firefighting in Canada

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

The history of firefighting in Canada reflects tremendous credit upon a very special group of dedicated and courageous public servants.

In early days, once a building was well alight, there was almost nothing to do except to try to prevent the flames from spreading to other buildings, a difficult task in times when dry timber was the most common building material, and towns consisted of crude buildings huddled close together. As this situation changed, firefighting became an important community endeavour. First volunteer units, assembled in time of emergency, and eventually full-time forces of firefighters undertook this vital work.

Baird’s history follows the development of Fire Clubs of volunteers through to Fire Departments; from primitive bucket brigades to the most sophisticated, modern, specialized equipment; from laissez-faire to modern fire regulations that govern the building trades and the use of public places of assembly. This comprehensive work deals with firefighting all over Canada in towns and cities, on land or aboard ship, with attention to some of the new and dangerous problems faced by firefighters of the modern era, when so much synthetic material releases toxic fumes when ignited.

Some of the most famous and tragic fires in Canadian history are described here: the destruction of the Parliament Buildings in 1916, and conflagrations that levelled entire towns such as Haileybury and Rimouski, explosions followed by fire as in the Halifax explosion of 1917, fire on shipboard with tremendous loss of life as in the Noronic disaster of 1949, and the terrible results of arson.

Dozens of black-and-white sketches and photographs capture the terrible excitement of fire, and the heartbreaking, blackened aftermath. The book includes biographical notes.