1885 - June Miscellaneous 6

It seemed like it was going to be a great day for Hamilton’s policemen and firemen.

About midday, Saturday June 13, 1885, a procession of most of Hamilton’s contingent of policemen and firemen formed in procession on King street, just east of Gore Park.

With music provided by the 13^th Battalion Band, the procession then moved out, heading west, beginning the journey which would end up at Dundurn Park.

As described in the Hamilton Times, Police Chief Stewart “led on horseback, followed by the patrol wagon, and then a platoon of 30 policeman. The fire wagon and all the fire apparatus that followed were handsomely and very tastefully decorated with evergreens, flags and flowers. The hook and ladder truck, steamer, hose reels and wagons from Central, King William street, Bay street and Victoria avenue stations. The fire chief, Aitchison, in his buggy brought up the rear.”¹

¹ “A Brave Show : The Police, Firemen and Bands Take a Holiday” Hamilton Times June 13, 1885.

When the procession arrived in Dundurn Park, a long programme of boxing and fencing exhibitions, plus a band concert had been planned for the entertainment of all in attendance.

Unfortunately, the day did not progress as it was it intended.

As soon as the firemen had barely arrived at Dundurn Park their plans were changed drastically:

“Saturday was a busy for the Hamilton fire department – the busiest day it has had for a good many years. Fate, chance, fortune, luck, whatever you like to call it, made arrangements to celebrate the day that the boys had mapped out for a sort of holiday, by the fiercest fire that has raged here for a long while.

“It was while the department was at Dundurn that an alarm came from box 27, corner of King and Wellington streets, at 2:40 o’clock. A telephonic message was sent to Dundurn and the department started for the spot.

“The Bay street hose wagon was the first to arrive. It got there fifteen minutes after the alarm was rung. The other wagons, hose reel, truck and steam fire engine arrived a few minutes afterwards.”²

² “Gone Up in Smoke : F. W. Fearman’s Pork Factory Burned” Hamilton Spectator June 13, 1885.

Two burning buildings near  the corner of King and Wellington street were  a flour and feed store, and the other was a butcher and green grocer’s shop. Above the butcher shop, the rooms were used as an apartment by a man named William Smith.

The reporter for the Spectator guessed that the fire had started in the stables in the rear of each the building:

“How? Nobody knows. A spark from a passing engine, a match, a cigar, the work of an incendiary. All are possible. It started anyhow.

“The stables were of pine, dry as tinder and filled with inflammable material. The flames had gained good headway before they were discovered. The alarm was rung, and people in the immediate vicinity put in their spare time carting out household goods and stuff from the stables.”²

It was not long before nothing else could be removed from the stables :

“In one of them was the horse, and some hay and straw. The horse was tied. It broke loose from the stall and was saved. A sleigh, a wagon, one set of single harness and a set of double harness were burned. The flames could not be controlled. They had spread up to the houses before the department arrived, and did a good deal of damage before they could be subdued.”²

Once the firemen had arrived after the long trek from Dundurn Park, they soon got the best of the fire. However the stables were wrecked, the back of both houses were wrecked, and the contents of both stores were in bad shape. Only the owner of the flour and feed shop had adequate insurance to cover the costs of losing the building and its contents. The butcher and resident living above the shop had no insurance at all.

Although the firemen had done good work, before they had the fire knocked down, the weather conditions caused another serious situation to take place:

“The wind was blowing a gale from the southwest and it carried sparks, smoke and cinders high in the air where they fluttered and fell. About 3:30 the flames were got under control, the steam engine was being hauled back to the central station, and the boys were making ready to go when a breathless messenger came with the information that Fearman’s pork factory was in flames.”²

The Fearman factory was located just a couple of blocks from the scene of the first fire. An immense business, the Fearman facilities on Rebecca street, between Ferguson avenue and Wellington street, covered eight lots, 10 feet deep:

“It comprised three buildings, A, B and C departments. A was the one of red brick nearest to Wellington street, and was used principally for rendering lard. In the southwest corner of it was the ‘cooler’ or ice house, beneath which an immense amount of meat was in pickle in large pickling vats.

“Department C, the building at the west, was the principal storehouse. There was another immense cooler in this place, in thousands of tons of ice were packed, and meat and lard was packed and hanging on the ground and upper floor all around it.

“In the central building was the office and a small room used for retailing goods in the winter time, and three large smoke houses. The rest of the place was used for cutting up meat and the walls and rafters were covered with meat in casings.”²

Mr. Fearman had been at the site of the first fire, staying until it was nearly out. Retuning to his place of business, he was concerned that the strong southwest wind might have carried sparks in its direction.

Walking around the plant, he found nothing amiss, but climbing through a window to check the roof of one of the building, his fears were confirmed. The roof was on fire:

“Men in Brennen’s lumber yard adjoining had seen the flames and were trying to put them out with buckets of water. But this was useless.

“A spark had evidently got in through a window in the garret, and set fire to some paper bags lying immediately inside. The flames spread along the rafters and had burned a hole through the roof before the men in Brennan’s yard had discovered them. Instead of giving the alarm in the office, they tried to douse the fire out by pouring on buckets.”²

It was a stubborn and challenging fire for Chief Aitchison and his men:

“The firemen worked with a will, and on towards evening had the flames pretty well under control, though it was after midnight before any of them left, and nearly 2 o’clock before they all left. The chief put on a gang of relief men who kept the water playing on the smouldering ruins the rest of the night.”²

The Fearman fire certainly got the attention of Hamiltonians and the scene in the area of the fire was chaotic:

“While the fire was at its height, the greatest confusion and excitement reigned for blocks around. The streets were thronged with people. Now and then a shout would come that someone’s house was on fire, and the vast crowd would surge down the street, only to come back after a moment’s absence. This was repeated a dozen times through the afternoon.

“In Brennen’s lumber yard, men were busily engaged piling lumber on Grand Trunk railway wagons and carting it out of the way. So great was the excitement that the men didn’t seem to care whether they were hit or not. A board was tossed down from the top of a pile. It caught a man in the small of the back and felled him to the ground. At any other time he would have imagined himself hurt, but he was too busy to consider a little thing like that. He picked himself up and went on with his work.

“A good deal of damage was done to household furniture in the streets. Men and wagons dashed over it, crockery was smashed, and sections of chairs, beds and bedding lay everywhere.

“The firemen worked like heroes, and they were all more or less played out after their severe exertions. Faces and hands blistered and blackened with the heat, singed hair and eyebrows and bruises from falling timbers are a few of the things they carry around as mementos of their work.”²

The two fires put a stop to any hope that the Hamilton firemen would have had a pleasant holiday in the park.