Forest Fires Mostly Confined to the Mountains—Excepting at Cobble Hill, Settlers Have Not Suffered

August 29, 1894

Daily Colonist

Though Tuesday’s thick mantle of smoke still hung heavy over Victoria yesterday, there was towards evening a decided change in the direction of comfort. The air was clearer and people felt less depressed. At the same time the feeling of uneasiness in regard to the fires which are the cause of all the trouble was intensified, as all recognized that the cooling of the air was due to the springing up of a pleasant breeze—and this same breeze may spread the fires in all directions, to work greater damage to standing timber and carry destruction upon the isolated ranches of the islands. Thus far the location of the fires on the southern end of Vancouver Island and their effect have been matters difficult to obtain information of, and it was not known yesterday whether or not any settlers besides those at Cobble Hill had suffered.

To obtain definite information for the press in this regard, half a dozen members of the Victoria Wheelmen’s Club yesterday volunteered their services, and were by noon speeding from the city, each in a different direction and with his own special territory to cover. The result of their enquiries is the knowledge that thus far the fires on Vancouver Island have been confined to the mountains, and the prospect is that aside from the inevitable destruction of timber there will be little actual loss. Settlers are taking precautions for the protection of their property; fences are being in some cases safely stacked away and grain harvested with all possible celerity; and the ranchers do not require assistance of any kind.

The wheelman who yesterday explored the Cedar Hill, Cordova Bay, Gordon Head and Cadboro Bay roads, ascertained that the fire reported from Cedar Hill Tuesday was scarcely worthy of mention, being more of a grass blaze than a forest conflagration. No crops or buildings are or have been endangered, and the most noticeable effect of the fires in the neighborhood is the unusual dustiness of the roads and the suffocating heat. Along Cordova Bay, waves of heat are wafted across from San Juan, so that the temperature of this usually delightful resort is like that of an oven fit for service. A sloop, just arrived from the island named, reported fully one-half of it blazing, while the end of Salt Spring is also said to be burning, though no particulars are available. From Cordova Bay the scene during the past few evenings has been grand, though portentous, the dense cloud-bank overhanging the silvery Straits being in turn crowned with a crimson glow, filling all the sky. Even should the settlers on San Juan have escaped injury by the fire itself they must have suffered severely from the intense heat.

In the Saanich peninsula few fires are reported, and these few brush burnings of no great consequence. At Jeremiah Griffe’s ranch, to the left of the Saanich road, the largest fire in this section has been raging and has been since a week ago Sunday. No damage of importance has yet accrued, as the fire is being watched to be under control. One touched another fire, originating two days later, still burning. It has not, fortunately, been productive of damage, nor is it likely to be, so long as it is carefully watched as it has been during the past week. On the Carey road a few fences have suffered and several acres of oats ready for harvesting have been burned over. This appears to constitute the total loss.

The courier along the line of the E. & N. railway has more to report than any of his brother fire scouts, for here it is that the danger is most pronounced, the fire is fiercest, and the destruction of timber is most noticeable.

“The fire may be said to commence at the tunnel, about fifteen miles from Victoria,” he says, “and extend to and over the Summit and on as far as Shawnigan Lake, being repeated at intervals even farther up the line. No one knows how the fire had its origin, though the supposition is that the burning of an old logging camp on Shawnigan Lake more than a week ago is responsible, the sparks communicating the fire to the undergrowth up the hillside. Thus far the flames have been confined to the mountains, where they are heard crackling and roaring like a hundred furnaces. Any view of the spectacle is denied, for the dense smoke makes it impossible to see more than a hundred yards in any direction.

“All along, the section men are fighting the fire back, determined to keep it as it is now above the track. That they will do so is to be expected, for though fire climbs the hillsides readily enough, it will take a strong wind to force it down, across the tracks and into the valley land.” Though the fires extend over a district of twenty miles and are the most extensive experienced since the building of the E. & N., no bridges or buildings are in danger, and the chief loss will be in the burning of standing timber and of cordwood stacked at the Summit. No grain has yet been destroyed, and the ranches at Cobble Hill are the only ones whose homes have been destroyed or even threatened.”

Along the Goldstream, Metchosin, Happy Valley and Sooke river roads the presence of the fires is indicated as much by the dead silence of the woods as by the greyish-blue veil of smoke which envelops everything. At Albert Head, the usually magnificent panorama of sea and mountains with the city in the distance, is blotted out, and only the dead wall of smoke hanging over Royal Roads meets the near horizon. Beecher Bay has a small fire but not a dangerous one; Finlayson and Green mountains have been on fire for ten days past and are still burning; and Goldstream has had a series of little fires at intervals for two weeks back, standing grain being occasionally threatened and the fences requiring close attention. A few miles beyond, the Leach river trail is impassable owing to fires on either side, which it is said (though on what authority is not mentioned) were purposely set last Sunday week. The trail had been but recently opened up by the Government, and was much used by the little community of 150 or more placer miners and quartz prospectors working about ten miles from Goldstream. Their only avenue of communication is now the Sooke Lake road, much further round, and fires are also reported to be raging near the lake where there are numerous small ranches or clearings. The fire is principally confined to the hills and not in danger of spreading further unless a brisk breeze springs up.

From Carmanah the report is: “No fires yet, though very dense smoke; the water cannot be seen from the lighthouse.” At Port San Juan says: “No fires here, but the settlers are clearing up brush,” and from Point Renfrew: “No bush fires here, but one to the west. We can see immense fires in the mountains on the American side of the Straits.”