The following article is a first hand account of the fire that destroyed Vancouver on June 13, 1886. It is reprinted from the Mainland Guardian of June 16, 1886. A recollection of the fire printed in the Vancouver Daily World five years later will be posted shortly.
(From our special Correspondent.)
Sunday morning at 7 o'clock the city of Vancouver was enveloped in smoke, it increased, and at 1 p.m. it hung over the doomed city like a funeral pall. The majority of citizens appeared to think a fire imminent, and some of them were out with buckets looking for water long before the first flash of fire was noticed. At ten minutes past 2 o'clock I heard an awful cry; it was loud and uttered by fifty persons in terror. Fire! Fire!! Fire!!! It brought every one who could hear into the streets and they heard a sound, and saw a sight never to be forgotten. For two or three minutes they heard the roar of that approaching torrent of fire, and then they saw it rise like a long wall high above the tall trees of the forest; and then it bounded down like a wild beast on the devoted city. I saw it strike one of the churches which disappeared in half a second; the air appeared to be impregnated with gas, and in two minutes the city was a fire. At 3 o'clock there were only two houses of the four hundred left standing. The chickens that were out in the streets feeding on grashoppers were roasted alive; and several persons shared their fate. The smell of burned flesh was horrible. On one of the principle streets at five o'clock I saw the dead body of a woman, and beside it the dead body of a child; the burned arm of the child was round the woman's neck, and the clothes on the right side of both bodies was burned to a crisp, the clothes on the side scarcely scorched. Fifty persons must have perished in the flames. Up to this time 9 dead bodies have been discovered. Hundreds went out to sea on logs, and other hundreds disappeared in the woods not knowing where to go in that blinding smoke.
About 3 o'clock I met Mr. Herring, the druggist, at False creek bridge. He says: "The people had time enough to escape, but they hesitated and delayed, hoping to save trifles. At 1/2 past 1 I left my horses, and my wife in a carriage, at Freeze's stables, and then went down to McCartney's drug store; he was then taking out his goods, and I assisted him for twenty minutes. I then heard the cry of fire! and ran. I had five or six hundred yards to go to the carriage where my wife was. We went off slowly, because the streets were obstructed by waggons [sic] and persons preparing to move. When I got to False Creek bridge I left my wife in the carriage there and returned to McCartney's. The distance between the two places is nearly a mile. McCartney's place was not then on fire. I helped him to get out more things, but the heat was terrible; in a little while I heard the crackling of the great fire coming through the wood, and I returned to False Creek. On the way back I saw a child at the window of a cabin; I stopped and gave the alarm. I said to the mother, "Come quick, the fire is coming this way, you have no time to spare," and I took the child by the hand. The woman said "Wait until I put in his boots." I told her there was no time; the fire was coming; I took the child by the hand and ran; the woman waited; I looked back, and the smoke had gathered around the cabin. I did not see her any more. I left her child with a lot of women who were gathered at False Creek bridge, they knew the woman. I do not know whether she escaped or not."
It was an awful scene. The whole population were newcomers, and did not know each other's names. Nine dead bodies have been discovered; five or six patients, dreadfully scorched, were sent into New Westminster last night.
To-day I crossed over the site of Vancouver city; it is a dismal black waste in the woods; the fire eat [sic] up everything. I learn from the sufferers that everyone expected a fire, but when it came no one was prepared to go. It came like a flash, and swept the city off the face of the earth. About a thousand persons lost all their property, and must be maintained for some time by the hand of charity; about a thousand other persons lost all the property they had in the city, but they have other property in other places. It was a pitiful sight to see the dead bodies and the women with their little ones running before that terrible fire.