Great fire of St John’s (1892)

On 8–9 July 1892 a fire destroyed the eastern and central parts of St John’s, Newfoundland. It caused so much damage that reconstruction took several years and Sir William Vallance Whiteway’s Liberal government was prompted to organize a force of paid firefighters for the city. The fire also inflamed discord at the local politic level, mainly because of the contentious issue of land tenure in the destroyed areas and the large surplus revenue the colony had received from tariffs as a result of the sudden increase in the need for imported building supplies.