One hundred and twenty-nine years ago today, a large portion of the city of St. John’s was razed to the ground in what became known as the Great Fire of 1892.

The fire broke out in a stable on July 8th and, fed by extreme heat and dry conditions, high winds, and poor city planning spread quickly, wiping out the entire downtown from the east end of Duckworth Street to the Anglican Cathedral and beyond.

The fire displaced 11,000 people and caused $13 million in damage.

History curator at The Rooms, Laura Pryor says a “perfect storm” of unfortunate events contributed to the massive destruction.

She says the fire broke out in a stable at the top of Carter’s Hill, but a nearby water tank had been emptied during a routine fire-checking drill and hadn’t been refilled. “And then the water pressure had been turned off earlier that day for the fire hydrants because they were laying pipes, and although it had been turned back on, there wasn’t enough time between 3:00 when it came back on, and 5:00 when the fire was called, to get the water back out.”