Last Updated: October 13, 2026
On April 26, 1900, a defective chimney set a house roof alight in Hull, and within hours the wind had carried the fire across the Ottawa River in one of the most catastrophic urban fires in Canadian history.
The Great Fire of 1900 remains one of Ottawa's most defining moments. Within hours, flames swept through Hull and jumped the Ottawa River, carried by wind-blown embers onto the lumber yards on the Ottawa side. By the time the fire burned itself out that night, about 15,000 people were homeless, seven people were dead, and roughly one fifth of Ottawa and most of Hull lay in ruins. The city rebuilt, and today the burned district, from LeBreton Flats to Dow's Lake, is a good place to read that history on the ground.
Key Highlights
TL;DR: On April 26, 1900, a fire that started in Hull, Quebec crossed the Ottawa River and destroyed about 3,200 buildings in Hull and Ottawa, killing seven people and leaving about 15,000 homeless. Parliament Hill, east of the burned area, was spared, and the city later restricted the lumber yards that fed the fire.
| Quick Facts | Details |
|---|---|
| Date | April 26, 1900 |
| Origin | Hull, Quebec (defective chimney on a house roof) |
| Deaths | 7 people |
| Homeless | About 15,000 residents |
| Buildings Destroyed | About 3,200 structures |
| Property Losses | $6.2 million in Ottawa and $3.3 million in Hull (1900 dollars) |
The Day That Changed Ottawa Forever
The morning of April 26, 1900, was an early spring day in the Ottawa Valley, mild for the season and very windy. Around 10 a.m., the alarm sounded in Hull for a fire in a small house beside Minnow Lake, where a defective chimney had set the roof alight. By the time the firemen under Chief Benoit arrived, the wind had already carried the flames to an adjoining house and a barn.
At first, no one imagined the blaze would become catastrophic. The firemen did all they could, but the wind, the closely packed wooden houses and their shingle roofs were against them. A chimney fire was nothing unusual, yet what began as a small fire soon became an unstoppable inferno.
By noon, the fire had consumed every dwelling on several of Hull's main streets, along with the post office and the Imperial Hotel, and it reached the E.B. Eddy mills and the Hull Lumber Company's piles. Around 1 p.m., a shower of sparks leapt across the Ottawa River and ignited the lumber piles and stables of the J.R. Booth company on the Ottawa side. The huge stacks of lumber along the river became fuel for the fire's relentless advance.
The blaze swept through LeBreton Flats, a working-class neighbourhood built around the mills, and on toward Dow's Lake. Residents fled with whatever possessions they could carry. Hull and Ottawa both lost their electric power as the plants burned, and the House of Commons adjourned in the dark.
The Lumber Industry: Fuel for the Flames
In 1900, the Ottawa-Hull area was built on lumber. The economy revolved around the mills and yards that processed timber floated down the Ottawa River from the logging camps upstream. The Chaudière Falls area was crowded with mills and lumber piles, and lumber men like J.R. Booth in Ottawa and E.B. Eddy in Hull were among the biggest employers.
These mills, essential to local prosperity, also made the city dangerously vulnerable to fire. Huge stockpiles of lumber stood on the river banks and islands, and an insurance inspector had warned years earlier that a fire starting in Hull could cross the river and run through the lumber piles into Ottawa. On the day, those piles carried the fire from one shore to the other.
Booth lost his mansion and five of his lumber yards, but his sawmill on Chaudière Island survived. His son Fred had installed a sprinkler system in the mill four years earlier, and it soaked the building inside and out. Hydro Ottawa's Portage Power describes the two stone buildings Booth put up between 1878 and 1892 as the only buildings on the island to survive the fire. Eddy's mills in Hull suffered heavy losses, and an estimated 100 million feet of lumber burned.
The lumber piles became the centre of the argument afterward. Fire Chief Peter Prevost told council on April 30 that the lumber piles and wooden buildings were the plain, apparent causes of the fire's spread. Council did not move the yards at first, only limiting how much lumber each yard could hold and how close it could sit to other buildings. After a second lumber fire in May 1903, it passed a bylaw prohibiting lumber piles in the city, though Booth then won nine fenced areas where yards could stay. The last raft of timber came down the river in 1906.
Why Parliament Hill Was Spared
Parliament Hill, whose Gothic Revival buildings dated from the 1860s, sat east of the burned area. The fire ran along the river and south through the west end, from LeBreton Flats to Dow's Lake, and the prevailing wind and the higher ground of central Ottawa kept it from spreading east. The Ottawa Journal reported that Division Street was a general dividing line on the fire district's east boundary.
Other things helped. The rail line acted as a firebreak and preserved the Hintonburg area. City leaders considered dynamiting houses to stop the fire, but dropped the idea because falling debris could spread it further. Employees saved much of the Dominion Experimental Farm's buildings, and on the east side a bucket brigade from three militia companies held back the flames. Late in the day the wind shifted, and the fire was largely contained by midnight.
The Hill gave a view of it all. Frank Gadsby of the Parliamentary Press Gallery wrote that the most vivid picture of the fire was the one seen from Parliament Hill at half-past seven that evening, with the sunset behind the Laurentians and the valley of the Ottawa River aflame below. The Hill itself lay outside the fire's path, but the loss of electric power had already forced the House of Commons to adjourn that afternoon.
The Human Cost and Immediate Aftermath
The statistics of the Great Fire are staggering, but behind the numbers were thousands of personal tragedies. Seven people lost their lives. About 15,000 were left homeless, roughly 14 per cent of Ottawa's population and 42 per cent of Hull's, and most had nothing but what they could carry. More people died afterward of disease in the crowded tent camps where many of the homeless had to live.
The disaster prompted an outpouring of support from across Canada and beyond. Relief efforts began the next morning, led by Ottawa City Council, and a general relief committee was formed. In Ottawa, the Drill Hall, the Exhibition Grounds and the Salvation Army barracks served as shelters, and the Governor General's party and Lady Laurier helped hand out food and clothing at the Drill Shed. In Hull, where no public buildings survived, Notre-Dame Church and the Matthews Buildings were two of the few large buildings spared and housed the homeless.
The Militia Department handed out canvas tents the next day, and the Ontario Legislature was asked to provide $100,000 in relief. Over the summer, the relief committee distributed $956,962.77 from donors around the world, with roughly one third going to Hull.
Rebuilding a Modern City
Rebuilding began almost at once, and it was not a clean break with the past. By the end of 1900, 445 homes had been built in Ottawa and Hull, with 29 more under construction, along with several shops, four hotels and a Canadian Pacific station. In Hull, 317 private homes, 94 stores and a large part of the Eddy mills went up again the first summer.
Fire safety was argued over, not settled overnight. Ottawa council rejected a rule forcing builders to use fireproof materials, because members feared it would raise costs and anger residents, and it limited lumber yards rather than banning them. Only after the second lumber fire in 1903 did the city prohibit lumber piles inside its limits. The lumber barons also moved their homes up from the river flats into the city proper above the escarpment, leaving workers as the Flats' remaining residents.
Some of the rebuilding is still standing. South of Albert Street, brick houses and townhouses built right after the 1900 fire survive in LeBreton Flats, and the stretch of Lorne Avenue below Nanny Goat Hill is a heritage district designated by the City of Ottawa.
The fire did not start Ottawa's planning story. The federal government had created the Ottawa Improvement Commission, the first step toward today's National Capital Commission, in 1899, a year before the fire. What the fire did do was clear a large part of the west end and put the lumber piles under public scrutiny, a debate that led to the 1903 bylaw and, in 1906, the last timber raft down the river.
Visiting the History Today
Visitors can still trace the fire's path across west Ottawa, from the Chaudière Falls through LeBreton Flats and south toward Dow's Lake, though little of the burned landscape is left.
LeBreton Flats is not what the fire left behind. The 1960s brought expropriation and demolition of the neighbourhood, and the land sat largely vacant for decades. The Canadian War Museum opened on the Flats in May 2005, and about half of the neighbourhood, south of Kichi Zibi Mikan, is still being redeveloped. Pimisi station on O-Train Line 1 is the easiest way in.
The Chaudière Falls area, once the heart of the lumber industry, has been partly redeveloped. Zibi, a mixed-use project on Chaudière and Albert islands and the Gatineau shore, is reusing some of the old E.B. Eddy buildings, and the falls have new viewing platforms and a park that recognizes Algonquin and industrial heritage. Booth's two stone buildings were the only structures on Chaudière Island to survive the fire, so they are the closest thing to a physical witness of 1900.
For the rebuilt streets, head south of Albert Street in LeBreton Flats, where brick houses built just after the fire still stand, and to Lorne Avenue below Nanny Goat Hill, a City of Ottawa heritage district. The Preston Street area was once Rochesterville, one of the neighbourhoods the fire devastated. The ByWard Market is a different story. It lies east of the burned district, so its older buildings do not come from the post-fire rebuilding.
FAQ
Q: When did the Great Fire of 1900 occur?
The Great Fire began on April 26, 1900, around 10 a.m., when a defective chimney set the roof of a small house in Hull alight. Strong wind spread it to nearby houses and a barn, and by about 1 p.m. embers had jumped the Ottawa River into the lumber yards of Ottawa.
Q: How much of Ottawa was destroyed in the Great Fire?
About one fifth of Ottawa burned, mostly in the west end from LeBreton Flats to Dow's Lake. Across Hull and Ottawa, roughly 3,200 buildings were destroyed. Property losses were put at $6.2 million in Ottawa and $3.3 million in Hull, in 1900 dollars, and insurance covered only about half of Ottawa's share.
Q: Was Parliament Hill damaged in the Great Fire of 1900?
No. Parliament Hill lay east of the burned area, and the prevailing wind and the higher ground of central Ottawa kept the fire from spreading that way. The loss of electric power did force the House of Commons to adjourn that afternoon.
Q: How did the Great Fire change Ottawa?
It destroyed much of the west end and exposed how dangerous the lumber piles and wooden houses were. Council limited the lumber yards after 1900 and prohibited lumber piles in the city after a second fire in 1903. The last timber raft came down the Ottawa River in 1906.
Final Thoughts
The Great Fire of 1900 was one of the worst days in the history of the capital region. It left about 15,000 people homeless in Ottawa and Hull, destroyed a fifth of Ottawa, and forced a long argument about the lumber piles that had carried the fire across the river.
Today, much of the burned district looks nothing like it did in 1900. The brick houses south of Albert Street, the heritage streetscape on Lorne Avenue and the stone buildings of Chaudière Island are among the few things that connect a walk through the west end to that April day.
Sources: Hydro Ottawa's Portage Power on the Chaudière Island fire, Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network, "Great Hull Fire of 1900", National Capital Commission, "125 years of capital building"
