Boucherville, Québec, Canada (Sainte-Famille-de-Boucherville)
1843 - Awful Conflagration the Village of Boucherville in Ashon

At the late fire at Boucherville, near Montreal, 52 houses, besides other buildings, were destroyed. Before the fire, it was one of the prettiest villages on the banks of the St. Lawrence.

Republican Farmer
Connecticut
June 27, 1843


From the Montreal Herald of Wednesday.

It is our melancholy duty to record one of the most disastrous events which Providence sees fit to direct against the works of man. The village of Boucherville, which stand about ten miles below Montreal, on the opposite side of the river, and contained a population of over a thousand souls, is no longer in existance. Yesterday morning the bright sun rose upon its happy dwellings, and its cheerful looking spires; at night be set, but the wretched inhabitants wept in anguish over the ashes of their homes.

The village was built on the right bank of the St. Lawrence, fronting the river for about a mile, and four principal streets ran back to the rear. There may have been about two hundred houses, most of which were of stone, and many of them two stories high. With barns, stables and other out-houses, it formed no mean collection of buildings, and had mean wealthy families among its inhabitants.

When we observed the fire, about half past four from the Montreal shore, there appeared to be no more smoke than is usually emitted from a steamboat, and we actually thought it to be a steamer below. Observing however, that the smoke was stationary, we watched it with some anxiety, until its awful character was revealed in flame. In the course of an hour we could see from the line of flame and smoke that several houses were on fire - Unfortunately, it had commenced toward the upper part of the village, and aided by a strong dry wind from the West, it soon involved a whole street.

For a short time it appeared to gain more upon the rear of the village, from some cause or another; there the terrible volumes of thick black smoke which rolled away to leeward, told of the quantities of fresh matter that it was feeding upon. In front, the large, handsome stone houses kept it in check for a little, so that it had the appearance of a regular ampitheatre of living flame. Its progress behind the village was more and more rapid, the houses probably being there generally constructed of wood, and it went on gradually closing in its grasp the devoted village. It was curious also to see, that while it rolled down to the leeward like a toreent, it also worked its way among the houses to windward. In the one direction the marks of its advance were fresh bursts of thick black smoke; in the other, house after house could be counted as falling a prey to its jaws. The scene was awful.

By six o'clock, the most of the village was in flames; but the church and the priest's residence were yet among others untouched, and for some time we hoped, that as they stood on the bank of the river, the strong wind would carry the flames from them. But a slight slant in the breeze brought either the flame or embers to the roof of the church, and it caught.

The river is perhaps three miles wide opposite the village, but as we stood on the Montreal bank we could see the snake-like flames running along the dry shingles of the roof, and in a few minutes, the south side was all on fire. It waved along the apex, and twined round the belfry and spire for some time. By and Bye the bright flame in the lower windows told that the brands had fallen into the lower body of the church, and were doing their work. The north side of the roof stood untouched, until the rafters of the south side gave way. The top was now all fire, and the whole building was surrounded with a white smoke.

To the eve of faith it might have looked as if the temple of God had assumed its shroud, before yielding to destruction. But the smoke was instantly burned down before the wind, and the roof gave way. For a long time the belfry stood, unwilling to yield. The flames curled in vindictive fury to the very top of the spire, and still in resisted. The mass of fire, from the falling roof had, however, set the whole interior of the building in a blaze. The dry wood work of the pews and galleries soon set forth, in awful majesty, and ocean of intensely white fire.

The belfry yet withstood the fiend; but, at length the dreadful heat and enormous mass of thick fire which ascended from below, got fast hold of the wooden supports of the spire, and it resigned itself to its fate - a tumbling mass of liquid flame. The heavy bell, as it descended, tossed up sparks and embers to a tremendous height. The glare of the burning gulf was at this moment so painfully intense, that although we were three miles off, our eyes ached as we gazed.

The Presbytere, or priest's residence, was unscathed for some time after the church had taken, but it too began to emit the rolling masses of black smoke, with here and there and occasional light streak like lightning, fitfully gleaming through it; and when the belfry fell, the whole, uniting with the wild torrent issuing from the church, was one continuous field of fire. And yet the dreadful element moved, all the while, steadily, though slowly, against the wind.

The doom of the whole village seemed to be sealed. God Almighty, for inscrutable reasons, had so willed it, and no hand was there to stay it.

While the church occupied, in the terrible foreground, our exclusive attention, the untiring enemy came sweeping on from the rear, and by 7 o'clock a square mile of heaving lava told where the once standing village of Boucherville was.

Sparks and fragments of burning wood must have been carried by the wind to a great distance; for we observed, about seven o'clock, a slender pillar of black smoke raising itself into the air, at least a mile and a half, we should think, to the leeward of the village. It strengthened by degrees until it burst into a flame, and some poor farmer's homestead has been reduced to ashes.

A list of sufferers will prove a census of the village. The names of some of the residents we have ascertained; among others M. De Boucherville, seigneur, M. De Grosbois, M Lacoste, N. P, Dr Wilbrenner, land surveyer, M. Labrocquerie, J. P. Roy, tavern keeper, Laberrier, Fleurimond, MOntarville, Secord, Proud, Bruyere, &c.


Albany Evening Journal
Albany, New York
June 26, 1843

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