{"id":31356,"date":"2025-05-01T01:03:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T05:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=31356"},"modified":"2025-04-30T00:58:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T04:58:54","slug":"great-balls-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/great-balls-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"great balls of fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A serious fire in Toronto in 1899 when buildings were made of combustible materials.<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. \u00a0In the column, “Image of the Month Series” by Robert Wilson, Bob chose a photo purported to have been taken by Alexander Galbraith. The photo is accompanied by a lengthy article titled, “Alexander Galbraith Began Long Career at Fire Scene”, which begins, “At 11:35 am on Friday, 10 February 1899, fire was noticed in the rear of the Gowans, Kent & Co\u2019s Warehouse at 10-16 Front Street East in Toronto.<\/p>\n

“Within a short time, the fire had spread to the top floor\u00a0and then to the front of the building. The first fire crew\u00a0to arrive quickly determined that the fire was out of\u00a0control and sounded the general alarm, bringing the\u00a0rest of the fire brigade.<\/p>\n

“The fire was brought under control in about two hours, but it took the firemen over six\u00a0hours to finally extinguish it. In their efforts, they used\u00a0hoses at both the front and rear of the building as well\u00a0as a water tower erected in the centre of Front Street as\u00a0seen in the photograph.<\/p>\n

“The firemen were hampered in\u00a0their efforts by dense black smoke, and by sub zero\u00a0temperatures which froze the water onto everything in\u00a0the area. The fire destroyed the building, and all the\u00a0stock held by Gowans, Kent & Co. with estimates of\u00a0the damage placed at\u00a0$150,000 to $175,000\u00a0for the contents and\u00a0$20,000 for the buildings.<\/p>\n

“Gowans, Kent\u00a0& Co. immediately\u00a0moved into 27\u00a0Wellington Street\u00a0West as a temporary\u00a0location and\u00a0restocked with ‘a\u00a0very large quantity of\u00a0new English goods’\u00a0which had been in\u00a0customs and in their outside warehouses.” …<\/p>\n

Bob Wilson\u2019s column in full, plus other articles appear in the issue 23-3 pdf on the free members only DVD\/thumb drive. Non-members can \u00a0join now (see MEMBERSHIP above and at right). Any membership questions? Email our membership secretary Lilianne at member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Visit our 2025 events and see what items (and photos) can be added to your collection! All events are listed under \u2018PHSC EVENTS\u2019 at right. Up next is our spring auction on May 4th. Any questions can be answered by Clint at fair@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NB. The title of this post is that of a 1957 song “Great Balls of Fire<\/a>” by Jerry Lee Lewis. An ancient song to the smart phone folk but close to home for old geezers like me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. \u00a0In the column, “Image of the Month Series” by Robert Wilson, Bob chose a photo purported to have been taken by Alexander Galbraith. The photo is accompanied by a lengthy article titled, “Alexander Galbraith Began Long Career at Fire … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[2328,4727,613,59],"class_list":["post-31356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-fire","tag-galbraith","tag-photo","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31360,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31356\/revisions\/31360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}