REMEMBER THIS? The forest fire season nobody forgets

From the archives of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library:

Forest fires have come to be annual occurrences in the summer and Ontario as a province was the hardest hit by fire in the summer of 1967.

By early June in 1967, eight forest fires were burning within the five-million-acre district of Algoma. A two-week drought had elevated the fire risk to extreme. Between Wawa, Elliot Lake and Chapleau there were over 200 firefighters, four aircraft and more than 50,000 feet of hose being used in an attempt to stop the progression of the fires.

The threat closest to the Sault was burning in Searchmont and had levelled 240 acres.

The town of Chapleau had a particularly bad fire that June and residents had to be evacuated due to the threat of an encroaching blaze.

Fire had threatened the community of Chapleau in the past but until 1967 an evacuation of the town had never been necessary. In the summers of 1922 and 1947, fires edged closer, and the CPR trains stood by ready, but winds shifted and the change in weather eased the emergency.

The fire risk in Chapleau in 1967 was the worst it had been in the 12 years prior. Temperatures in the 80s along with dry air, lack of rain and 25 mph wind gusts, created the ideal conditions for the fire to catch and thrive, a “timber box.” By the first Friday of June, heavy smoke clouds and a red glow in the sky could be seen from up to 50 miles away in the area surrounding Chapleau.

The fire travelled miles from the outskirts towards town, burning approximately 5,000 acres of land along the way. The blaze was described as a “crown fire” and was able to race through treetops covering vast distances very quickly. At one point the fire was able to make the ½-mile jump across a small lake in the area.

Every resident able to help was given a task.

Teens acted as Marshalls, those with medical experience or training served as nurses, and men left office and storefront jobs to work on the fire lines alongside professionals. The smell of burning was everywhere, in and around Chapleau. Townsfolk did their best to aid in the protection of their community and property by trying to establish fire breaks, stripping bush and bulldozing land between critical points, where fire was likely to advance.

“The situation in the town is tense. They’re worried about what the wind is going to do. Their ace in the hole is a trench 200 yards wide which has been bulldozed out in the dark in dangerous conditions” (Sault Star, June 5, 1967). At the time the Chapleau fire was deemed one of the worst burning in Ontario. It had made it to within two miles of the town.

By Saturday, June 4th most families had packed belongings and been evacuated, being forced to choose from their most valuable possessions while worrying about friends and neighbours. A change in weather could have made the fire worse, and the unpredictability left the town with no guarantees of reaction time, residents had to leave their homes. The first CPR train held 135 passengers in its boxcars and was loaded at 9:30 on June 3rd. A second train was loaded early the next morning.

The unfavourable winds had driven the fire closer and the absence of rain left residents with no other choice. Only 1,000 of the estimated 3762-member community remained. Although Highway 17 between Sudbury and the Sault was blocked by fire, the Timmins road remained open for emergencies. Timmins and Sudbury were asked to anticipate the arrival of evacuees, and city phone lines erupted with calls offering assistance, food and accommodation.

Chapleau became a ghost town under a haze of smoke. The streets were quiet and eerie. Only the crackling of the fire, a red glow in the air, a handful of residents and the smell of smoke remained. The OPP deputized some remaining citizens and asked them to patrol the empty streets. These deputies also had a duty to ensure that homeowners had their garden hoses hooked up, offering potential aid should the flames continue with their momentum toward houses.

Professional help to fight the fire came from cutting even more firebreaks, and attempts to create distance between Chapleau and the fire, “The flames are officially ‘contained’ but there is no letup for the grimy, bone-tired men in the bush as they struggle to cut a large enough space to halt the flames” (Sault Star, June 6, 1967). In an attempt to help, the Department of Lands and Forests began recruiting volunteers, men right off of the streets of the Sault.

As well aircraft, including two helicopters and two turbo-Beavers, were flown in to assist. Despite help dropping water from above, what the firefighters needed was days of wet weather, rain without lightning and low winds. “Fires smoulder for a few days after lightning…what we need is a few more days of rains” (Sault Star, June 6, 1967).

The rain Chapleau had waited two weeks for began falling late afternoon on Monday and brought some relief to the 380 firefighters working the blaze. With ¾” of rain falling, and temperatures dropping to low 70s the forest fire became more manageable. However, the rainwater was a double-edged sword, and led to washouts on the highway between Thessalon and Chapleau, with the worst being a 40-mile stretch on Highway 129. Rain continued Monday into Tuesday and eased the area’s fire risk from extreme to low.

Despite the washouts, the rain also brought the return of townspeople. And by Wednesday Chapleau schools and its hospital were reopened. Chapleau had lost 5,869 acres, but the community remained hopeful, “a 10-to-12-day old fawn was the first creature to be brought out alive from the spruce, poplar and jack pine…ravaged by the fire” (Sault Star, June 7, 1967).

Rain helped firefighters get the Chapleau fire and another of Algoma’s biggest fires that summer in check and helped to extinguish two more. But, at the time, 14 fires remained ablaze throughout the province. All 14 of the fires burning were determined to be caused by the same thing – man. The weather, temperature and lightning only made the situation worse. Departments of Lands and Forests said that hot shavings from train brake shoes was the main cause behind Chapleau’s fire. Shavings are known to fly from rails into dry timber and undergrowth, then spark causing a fire. Locomotives have since adopted a new kind of brake shoe, in hopes of eliminating chipping and sparks.

Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provide SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.

Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more "Remember This?" columns here.