The 1922 fire that burned down Montreal's City Hall, 100 years later

On March 3, 1922 — exactly 100 years ago Thursday — the night watchman at Montreal’s City Hall smelled smoke.

By the time firefighters arrived, flames were spreading through the building's walls. Within hours, City Hall was gutted, its roof and floors collapsed.

The first building in Canada constructed exclusively for use by a municipal government, the building had been a stronghold of Montreal’s Old Port since its construction in the 1870s.

Now, only its stone foundation remained.  

"Part of the building was saved, the two sides were saved," explained Barry Adams, the former curator of the Montreal firefighters museum (MPM).

Despite the late hour, an estimated 2,000 onlookers had crowded the scene on Champ-de-Mars St. as the building was hosed down.

According to reports at the time, four alarms were sounded and 13 steam fire engines were deployed throughout the night while the fire raged on.

Firefighters sprayed the flames with an estimated 50 powerful jets. (Barry Adams / Archives de Ville de Montreal)

Adams said the mayor himself, Médéric Martin, had rushed to the scene in the hopes of preserving important municipal documents.

"During the evening, around 2 o’clock in the morning, I think it was, he was called at home and he ran down to city hall to try and save some files," he said.

Some of city's archive was preserved, securely stored in fireproof safes — but "lots of historical files have been lost," said Adams.

The floors of the building had collapsed through to the basement, its interior structures completely destroyed. (Barry Adams)

Although the exact cause of the incident is unclear, Adams said old buildings were far more susceptible to fires on account of their heating systems.

"Where today, it’s probably heated with natural gas or electricity, back then it would probably be coal stoves, furnaces," he said.

By 1926, City Hall had been rebuilt with the addition of a fifth storey, becoming the structure we know today.

Decades later, in 1984, the building would be declared a national historic site of Canada.