Why Nobody Stopped Canada’s Deadliest Forest Fire

On July 29, 1916, settlers' clearing fires along the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway merged into one front 64 km wide. Six Northern Ontario towns burned and 223 people died, the deadliest forest fire in Canadian history. This is the story of the settlers, pulpwood cutters, railway crews and mill hands of the Great Clay Belt: how the fire happened, why nothing was in place to stop it, and how the towns came back. Chapters 00:00 The Day the Smoke Turned Black 02:27 A Railway Into the Bush 05:44 A Dry July 08:09 Saturday, July 29 10:20 Nushka 12:25 Iroquois Falls and the Count 14:13 Why Nobody Stopped It 15:47 The 1917 Act and the Fire Towers 18:45 What the Towns Rebuilt Sources Ontario Heritage Trust, provincial plaque "The Great Fire of 1916" (Matheson) Michael Barnes, Killer in the Bush (book on the 1916 fire) CBC News Sudbury, centenary report on the Great Matheson Fire (2016), incl. historian Mark Kuhlberg, Laurentian University McMaster University Archives, Iroquois Falls fire of 1916 collection (RC0520) Thelma Miles Historical Museum, Matheson, Ontario Archives of Ontario: Ontario Department of Lands, Forests and Mines records; Forest Fires Prevention Act, 1917 Some scenes are illustrated reconstructions created for this documentary. #MathesonFire #NorthernOntario #CanadianHistory #ForestFire #LoggingHistory