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<\/p>\nA little over a hundred years ago, thousands of residents braved the bitter cold to either watch or battle a blaze at the Brampton Milling Co. \u2013 a fire that threatened to level Brampton\u2019s industrial section and engulf downtown Brampton.<\/p>\n
Brampton\u2019s The Conservator newspaper called it the \u201cworst fire seen here in forty years\u201d when the Brampton mill went up in flames on the night of Feb. 15, 1926, the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives (PAMA) says.<\/p>\n
Located at the end of Joseph Street where it meets the Canadian Pacific rail line, the grist mill was first built in 1889 for the Pearen Bros. and was sold multiple times before ownership came to A. H. Balfour in 1919.<\/p>\n
And while the structure had seen multiple smaller fires over the decades, the one that took the building down in 1926 \u201cwas without comparison,\u201d PAMA says in an article about the historic fire.<\/p>\n
It was first reported when neighbour Fred Goy noticed the blaze at 10:30 p.m., and rang the community pull box \u201cincessantly\u201d as \u201cevery many willing to fight the fire was wanted on the job,\u201d according to The Conservator.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first truck arrived a mere four minutes after the alarm, and the fire was seen making its way up and down from the second storey,\u201d PAMA says of the blaze. Volunteer firefighters fought back a bitter cold as winds made fighting the fire difficult, with the building becoming layered in ice.<\/p>\n
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The fire spreading was a real concern, and men continuously wet the roof of the Pease Foundry, while others were patrolling the roof of J. W. Hewetson\u2019s shoe factory extinguished multiple \u201clarge flakes of burning material.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As some 2,000 onlookers watched large embers rain down on Queen Street, every house for blocks around reportedly had someone on the roof wielding a broom to sweep away burning embers, or used garden hoses to douse hot spots on shingles.<\/p>\n
Around midnight, crews from Georgetown and Streetsville arrived on the scene, giving relief to Brampton\u2019s \u201cweary and frozen\u201d fire brigade, according to the archives. It took five fire hoses four hours before the fire was under any real control, with firefighters containing until morning.<\/p>\n
Some were called back the following night to extinguish blazes that had eaten their way through the debris.<\/p>\n
Ontario\u2019s Deputy Fire Marshall deemed the blaze an accident, and Mayor Franklin Wegenast called a meeting of Brampton\u2019s businessmen following the disaster. Plans were put in motion to increase the capacity of the Brampton Water Works.<\/p>\n
And while the fire threatened to tear through the downtown\u2019s industrial area, the mill was operating again by the summer. Martin Brothers of Main Street South brought in the first load of wheat for the season that August. Balfour would stay on as owner of the mill until at least 1936.<\/p>\n
The 100-foot grain elevator was levelled in December of 1951, with piles of grain periodically bursting into flames the next day, with the mill losing 20,000 bushels of grain in four hours.<\/p>\n
Now the lot is the home of Dynamic Motor Sports, located at the end of Joseph Street next to the Canadian Pacific tracks, the archives says.<\/p>\n
To learn more about the Brampton Milling Co. fire and other historic events in Peel Region, visit www.pama.peelregion.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n