Self-Guiding Tour

#30   Winnipeg Theatre Fire

At 9:56 am on Thursday, December 23, 1926, the WFD responded to an alarm of smoke coming from the roof of the Winnipeg Theatre, a structure which had stood at the site on Notre Dame Avenue (between Hargrave St. and Adelaide St.) since 1883. The first crews to respond came from fire hall #2, then located at York Avenue and Smith Street, and fire hall #1, then located on Albert Street near William Avenue. They arrived to find the brick-veneered, wood-framed structure in flames, with thick smoke billowing from its roof.

The City of Winnipeg had introduced new fire protection measures for each of its theatres months earlier. The upgrades included the installation of a sprinkler system over the stage area in front of the curtain, additional hydrants and hoses, and more exits. The Winnipeg Theatre asked city officials for a temporary exemption from the new rules because it only saw occasional use.

The first firefighters to arrive attached their hose lines to nearby hydrants and attacked the fire at its source – inside the theatre near the stage. Fanned by northwest wind, the fire spread quickly. Fire Chief John E. Buchanan arrived at the scene and noticing the building’s exterior walls were unstable and buckling, ordered all firefighters out. Buchanan would risk no lives attempting to save what had become a derelict building.

As firefighters backed their hose lines out, the east wall and canopy on the Adelaide Street side of the theatre collapsed without warning.

Hosemen Donald Melville (age 41), Robert Stewart (37), Robert Shearer (33) were killed by falling debris. Arthur Smith (38), Chief Buchanan’s personal driver, died of his injuries that night in the hospital. Nine other firefighters were injured.

With permission from their families, the four men were laid to rest side-by-side at Elmwood Cemetery after a standing-room[1]only funeral at St. Giles United Church on Burrows Avenue.

The Winnipeg Theatre was destroyed. The cause of the fire was never established.

A 1927 inquest into the tragedy recommended closer cooperation between the fire department and the city’s fire prevention and building inspector’s office.

The fire was the worst loss of life in the history of the Winnipeg Fire Department.

(Currently it is the site of a Manitoba Hydro substation.)

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