An excerpt from Terry Boyle’s Discover Ontario reads:
“On the blustery night of September 22, 1887, between midnight and one o’clock in the morning, a fire started at Mowry and Sons foundry on Muskoka Road, just north of the present-day post office. By the time the alarm was sounded, the whole building was ablaze, and it spread quickly to Brignall’s wagon shop and home. The residents of Gravenhurst rallied to the scene with a horse-drawn engine but, unfortunately, the men had difficulty operating the pumps and by the time they got things rolling, the fire had reached the four-storey Fraser House Hotel, By then, things were really out of control. The wind carried burning debris across the streets, and the fire spread to all of the wooden buildings in the business section of town, Burning cinders rained upon Gravenhurst, setting a dozen different buildings ablaze.
A telegraph appeal went out to Bracebridge, Orillia, and Barrie requesting help.
The Barrie brigades loaded their equipment onto the nearest railway handcars, but it was too late. As if things weren’t bad enough, the ammunition stocked in stores began to explode. A towering inferno raged for three long hours, until nothing was left. It was all over by daybreak. The buildings destroyed totalled 50, including the Anglican Church and a brand new public school.”
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