Temporary morgue at Matheson, Ontario (1916)

The great Matheson Fire was a deadly

forest fire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

that passed through the region surrounding the communities of

Black River-Matheson Black River-Matheson is a township in the Cochrane District of the Canadian province of Ontario. The municipality is astride the Black River, for which it is partly named. The Matheson railway station was serviced by the Northlander until 2012. ...

and

Iroquois Falls Iroquois Falls is a town in Northern Ontario, Canada, with a population of 4,537 at the 2016 census. The town centre lies 11 km east of Hwy 11 on the banks of the Abitibi River, west of Lake Abitibi. Timmins, one of the largest cities in ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, on July 29, 1916. As was common practice at the time, settlers cleared land using the

slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...

method. That summer, there was little rain, and the forests and underbrush burned easily. In the days leading up to July 29, several smaller fires that had been purposely set merged into a single large

firestorm A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires. Although the term has been used ...

. It was huge; at times its front measured across. The fire moved uncontrollably upon the towns of Porquis Junction, Iroquois Falls, Kelso, Nushka, Matheson, and Ramore, destroying them completely and causing extensive damage to Homer and Monteith. A separate fire burned in and around

Cochrane Cochrane may refer to: Places Australia *Cochrane railway station, Sydney, a railway station on the closed Ropes Creek railway line Canada * Cochrane, Alberta * Cochrane Lake, Alberta * Cochrane District, Ontario ** Cochrane, Ontario, a town wit ...

. In all, the fires burned an area of approximately . Because of forest fire smoke that had covered the region for several weeks and the absence of a forest fire monitoring service, there was almost no warning that the conflagration was upon the communities. Some people escaped on the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (now the

Ontario Northland Railway The Ontario Northland Railway is a Canadian railway operated by the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a provincial Crown agency of the government of Ontario. Originally built to develop the Lake Timiskaming and Lake Nipissing area ...

), while others were saved by wading into the nearby Black River or one of the small lakes in the area. 223 people were killed according to the official estimate. The Matheson Fire led to the creation of the Forest Protection Branch of the Department of Lands, Forests, and Mines (now known as the

Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry The Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry is a government ministry of the Canadian province of Ontario that is responsible for Ontario's provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates and the Crown lands ...

) and the Forest Fires Prevention Act in Ontario. The great fires are the subject of the books ''Killer in the Bush'' by Michael Barnes, and ''Il pleuvait des oiseaux'' by

Jocelyne Saucier Jocelyne Saucier (born May 27, 1948 in Clair, New Brunswick) is a Canadian novelist and journalist based in Quebec. Career Educated in political science at the Université Laval, Saucier worked as a journalist in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue regi ...

.Barnes: ''Killer in the Bush: the Great Fires of Northeastern Ontario''. 2nd edition, 2004. Cobalt, Ontario:

Highway Book Shop The Highway Book Shop was a bookstore and publishing company, located on Ontario Highway 11 near Cobalt, Ontario, which operated from 1957 to 2011. Considered a landmark and cultural institution in the region, it was one of the largest and most fam ...

; Saucier: (engl. ''And the birds rained down''). Coach House, Toronto, 2013 & London 2015

Historical plaque

Ontario Heritage Foundation The Ontario Heritage Trust (french: link=no, Fiducie du patrimoine ontarien) is a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture. It is responsible for protecting, preserving and promoting the built, natural and cultural herita ...

historical plaque stands in Alarie Park near Matheson and reads:

References

{{Reflist

1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that had been stored and cooled. * ...

Natural disasters in Ontario 1916 in Ontario 1916 fires in North America 1910s wildfires 1916 disasters in Canada

Historical plaque

See also

References