The Lumby Fire of
1932
By Peter
Ward
The most
disastrous fire in Lumby's history completely
destroyed the main section of the town in the early
hours of Saturday,October 8th, 1932.
The blaze which
originated at about 3a.m. from unascertained causes
raged uncontrolled from where it started in the
office of the Shields' & Company store. The
fire than jumped across the street to the Lumby
Hotel, then spread to Morand's Hotel, and finally
to Mrs. Cleophas Quesnel house. There it was
finally checked. Though both hotels had an
unusually large number of patrons registered that
night,everyone was evacuated safely. Fortunately,
most of the furnishings from the Lumby Hotel and
all of the furnishings from the Morand Hotel and
the private household were saved.
Someone called the
Vernon Fire Department and they immediately
responded with their pumper-truck which they drove
right into Bessette Creek (Duteau) for water
supply. Two fire hoses were laid from the truck to
the site and two additional pumps belonging to the
Forest Branch in Lumby, but which had been
unfortunately stored in Vernon, were also put into
service. "this assistance, while to late to prevent
the destruction of the blazing buildings, no doubt
saved Lumby from being completely wiped out". It
was thought by some if only these Forestry pumps
had been available in Lumby at the onset of the
fire, at least some of the property might have been
saved.
Some of the
happier aspects of the fire were that several
houses which had been standing vacant at the time ,
were available to provide immediate refuge foe
those who were burned out of their homes.
Telephone service
was reestablished only four hours after the fire
was discovered and electrical power was restored by
mid-day. and though all of the stock of Shields
store had burned, Mr. Jack Heighway, manager of
Shields, was able to set up shop by noon of the
same day in a vacant building on the south side of
Vernon St. with new supplies which he obtained from
Vernon!
Morand's Hotel,
owned by Mrs. Sideleau, and the Quesnel house were
fully insured. The Lumby Hotel, the old Ram's Horn
of 1895, was insured for only $6000 and Mrs.
Jackson the owner did not rebuild. Shields store
built in 1912, was fully insured except for the
Christmas stock. The new red brick building was
opened on the week-end of May 6,1933, less then
seven month after the fire... and served the
community for many more years.
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