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  The Great Fire of 1904
   

 

Stone and brick buildings on both sides of the paved street are three to five stories high. Many have arched windows and doorways, cut stonework, and other ornaments. Some modest lettered signs are hanging out over the concrete sidewalks from the buildings, but many stores have their names in raised lettering across the front of their buildings, or even painted on their sides. The clock tower of Old City Hall is visible in the distance at the end of the street.
The facades of some of the buildings are still standing, but many are half-fallen or gone. Bay Street is filled with rubble.

2
Bay Street looking north
from just north of Front Street
[ca. 1903]
Photographer: Alexander W. Galbraith
City of Toronto Archives
Series 409, Item 61

2
Bay Street looking north
from just north of Front Street
April 1904
Photographer: William James
City of Toronto Archives
Fonds 1244, Item 2

These two photographs were taken from almost exactly the same spot. The building with the triangular top (not with the flag) on the right-hand side of the street (seen best in the 1903 photograph) was owned by the Evening Telegram newspaper, and marks the north-east limit of the fire. Dedicated Telegram employees fought the fire for two hours, spraying water from windows and from a hydrant on the roof. They saved their building, and prevented the fire from moving east. (Their employer, John Ross Robertson, rewarded them with large bonuses.)

Exactly how the fire started has never been solved. Early reports suggested that faulty electrical wiring was to blame. Others thought that a stove left burning at the end of the work day was the cause. Whatever the source, by the time a watchman saw flames and sounded the alarm at 8:04 pm on that icy night of April 19, 1904, the Wellington Street building in which it had started was already a loss, and the fire was spreading to its neighbours.

Fire insurance plan showing extent of fire
April 1904
Artist: Charles Edwin Goad
City of Toronto Archives
MT 799
Map copyright CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants Inc.

This plan was drawn for the use of insurance companies. The black cross in the pink circle in the upper left-hand corner shows where the fire began.

The red numbers and arrows, added for this web exhibit, correspond to the red numbers underneath each picture in this exhibit. They show the location and direction of the pictures.

Click the plan to enlarge it. A new window will open.

From its origins in the E. & S. Currie Building (on the north side of Wellington Street, west of Bay), the fire quickly spread north, south, and east. Soon, both sides of Wellington and Bay were aflame. By 9 pm, every fireman in the city was at the site. The mayor, Thomas Urquhart, sent the deputy fire chief a message, asking if he needed any assistance. The deputy’s response: “We need all the assistance we can get.”

This picture was taken looking down from above, over the fire ruins in the block east of Bay Street. Most of the buildings are destroyed, although some facades, chimneys, and partial walls still stand. The ruins are smoking, and the air is filled with smoke.
Two men stand on the street, looking at the ruins of a building. At least three stories of the brick façade still stand, with empty door- and window-frames. On front of the building are the letters "G & SONS."

3
Looking north-west to the corner of Bay and Wellington streets
April 1904
Photographer: Arthur Frederick Rust
City of Toronto Archives
Series 376, File 4, Item 52

4
Ruins of G. Goulding & Sons building, 55-59 Bay Street, east side of Bay Street looking east
April 1904
City of Toronto Archives
Series 402, Item 2
The street that runs from left to right in this photograph (where people are walking) is Bay Street. The ruins fronting on Bay at the extreme left are those of the G. Goulding & Sons building (see next photograph). The high façade sticking up in the centre of the skyline (with what looks like an antenna) may be, or may be next door to, the building where the fire started. While the outer walls of the buildings were brick or stone, the joists, floors, and interior walls were wooden. Open stairwells and wide storage spaces filled with cloth, paper, and other flammable goods allowed the fire to sweep through fast, leaving only the stone outer walls remaining, and sometimes not even those.

While the mayor sent telegrams to other cities, urgently asking for help, the fire’s northward advance was stopped. But the fire continued south and east, and by 11 pm, it had reached Front Street. From there it swept south to the Esplanade, and east along Front towards Yonge Street.

This hand-coloured newspaper print shows a three-storey block of buildings. The first storey is extra high, and has large, arched display windows. The names of stores and businesses are on signs across the front of the building, and on placards at eye level near the doors. At the top of the building on the right-hand side, a triangular roof ornament reads "Phoenix Block 1872."
 Ruins and facades with nothing behind them line the street. Wires tangle above street level and lie in strands on the ground. Bricks and burnt timbers litter the street. A wide puddle of water lies on the street in the foreground.

5
Front Street West, looking west from Yonge Street
Canadian Illustrated News
 October 26, 1872
City of Toronto Archives
Series 858, File 30

6
Front Street West, looking east from Bay Street
April 1904
Photographer: W.J. Whittingham
City of Toronto Archives
Fonds 1408, Item 2

This row of buildings, named the "Phoenix Block," was built in 1872, probably to replace others destroyed in another fire. The tenants at number 13 are Wyld and Darling, whose later warehouse at Bay and Wellington streets was destroyed by the 1904 fire. The triangular facade of the ruined Phoenix Block can be seen in the centre of this photograph. Note the fallen telegraph and electrical wires, which caused difficulty and danger to the firefighters throughout the fire.

Fire fighters and equipment from Toronto’s surrounding suburbs, and others arriving by special express trains from Hamilton and Buffalo, arrived in time to help Toronto’s exhausted fire fighters make a last stand just west of Yonge Street. Some on the ground, some climbing to the roofs of untouched buildings to get above the flames, for two hours they soaked the advancing edge of the fire. Finally, by 4:30 am, the fire was declared under control, though small fires continued to break out for the next few days, and the ruins smouldered for two weeks.

A panorama of the ruins, taken from high in a building.
7
Looking west along Front Street West from Yonge Street
April 1904
City of Toronto Archives
Series 327, Subseries 5, File 27
Men in business suits stand around in fire ruins, surrounded by partial brick walls. A tall chimney juts up at the left. In the distance stands a line of building façades with empty windows.
In the foreground are several railway tracks and trains. In the distance are the fire ruins, still smoking.
8
Looking north from the Esplanade, west of Bay Street
April 1904
Photographer: Arthur Frederick Rust
City of Toronto Archives
Series 376, File 4, Item 50

9
Looking north from below the train tracks, west of Bay Street
April 1904
Photographer: Arthur Frederick Rust
City of Toronto Archives
Series 376, File 4, Item 49
This is probably the site of the Eckardt Casket Company. The high ruins with the window openings in the distance are the backs of facades fronting on Front Street. The tall smokestack of the Eckardt company (see previous photograph) can be seen at the extreme left. The tall smokestack at the right of the picture belongs to the M. McLaughlin & Co. mill, as does the stone building just in front of it. The two water tanks on the skyline at the centre of the picture mark the Kilgour Brothers factory.

Miraculously, although many fire fighters suffered minor injuries, particularly temporary eye damage due to smoke and cinders, no one died in the fire. Financial losses were another story. Total estimated losses were $10,000,000—in 1904 dollars. Most businesses had insurance, but even so, some lost tens of thousands of dollars. Five thousand workers lost their jobs, temporarily or permanently. The insurance companies suffered serious losses, but earned no one’s sympathy when they raised all insurance premiums for businesses in the affected area by 75%—retroactive to the night of the fire.

Men walk down the street, away from the camera, surrounded by fire ruins. The street is choked with bricks, timbers, discarded fire hoses, and other litter.
10
Wellington Street east, looking west
April 1904
City of Toronto Archives
Series 402, Item 5
As the burning buildings collapsed, they filled the streets with rubble, as visible here. Astonishingly, some wooden telegraph poles are still standing. The stone arch at the centre of the picture is the Wyld-Darling building; the Brock building is on the right. The building where the fire started is behind and to the left of the photographer.

  
Most of the the ruins are several stories high. Pedestrians and a horse-drawn cart travel the streets, which are mostly clear. To the left, a building has completely collapsed, and cut stone blocks dot the brick rubble.
Eight men are preparing to clear a fire ruin site by loading bricks and cut stone into a horse-drawn cart. A few men have shovels. Another seems to be picking up a piece of stone with his hands.
12
Robert Darling & Co. building, Bay and Front Streets looking east
April 1904
Photographer: Arthur Frederick Rust
City of Toronto Archives
Series 376, Item 4, Item 57

13
Clearing up after the fire, looking south-east from near Bay Street
April 1904
City of Toronto Archives
Series 402, Item 8
  All of the rubble had to be cleared away by hand. Some of the male workers thrown out of work by the fire found employment doing this work.

Most of the burnt-out businesses quickly found temporary quarters and continued to operate. Many began to rebuild immediately, and City Council worked fast to pass a new building by-law, setting standards for fire-resistant (for the time) construction. On the first anniversary of the fire, The Globe would write, “The business interests of Toronto are safe in the hands of the men who within a year of such a staggering blow as the great fire of April last have made such wonderful progress in effacing its results.”

Ruined brick walls, a variety of heights, are viewed from above. Smoke is coming from ground level. On one surviving building corner, starting at the top and reading down, are the letters, "COMF."
14
Looking south-west
from the west side of Bay Street
April 1904
Photographer: W.J. Whittingham
City of Toronto Archives
Fonds 1408, Item 16
The tall fragment in the centre reads "Comfort Soap." The tower to its right is that of the Union Station of the time, which was far enough west to escape the fire.  

 

Some companies affected
Film footage of the fire and aftermath

 
 

 
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