Shocked Canadians gather and helplessly watch as the Saint-Boniface Cathedral burns (Saint-Boniface, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada c. 1968)

twobit211 says

this event helped convince winnipeg’s surrounding municipalities (including st. boniface here) to go ahead with amalgamation.

first, since st b was it’s own city at the time, the emergency call went to the the st boniface fire department despite winnipeg fire department being closer and bigger. (interestingly, the first 911 service in north america was implemented in manitoba.).

the st boniface fire department wasn’t large enough and sufficiently equipped to deal with a conflagration of this size. eventually, somebody had the bright idea to actually call the wfd for additional support. by that time, a crowd had gathered on tache ave (the street behind where the photographer is standing in the picture) to watch the blaze making it effective unusable for the fire fighters. since the wfd didn’t have detailed enough maps of st boniface, they weren’t sure which surrounding streets they could get down, turn in or even where the hydrants were located.

by the time the wfd was in a position to help the sbfd, it was too late. the cathedral was unsaveable.

but it wasn’t all bad. architect etienne gaboury was commissioned to rebuild and was given carte blanch to do what he wanted, even tear the ruins down and start from scratch. etienne went against the architectural paradigm and did his best to preserve what he could of the old cathedral. today, you can look across the red river from the forks and still see the remaining part. and i feel the city is a lot better for it

Comments

NoDrinksBefore12 says

What remains
backgammon_no says

Hey! I’m from Winnipeg and had no idea that there was ever a cathedral behind the (remaining) facade. I had always thought that it was just a very striking building-sized "sculpture".
manifest-decoy says

excellent. watching christians suffer is always a joy
IMAKILL3R says

The interior pre-fire
dmskoy88 says

how come so many cathedrals and churches start to burn, more and more in recent years even? 🤔
RobertBorden says

This is where Louis Riel is buried, right?
twobit211 says

this event helped convince winnipeg’s surrounding municipalities (including st. boniface here) to go ahead with amalgamation.

first, since st b was it’s own city at the time, the emergency call went to the the st boniface fire department despite winnipeg fire department being closer and bigger. (interestingly, the first 911 service in north america was implemented in manitoba.).

the st boniface fire department wasn’t large enough and sufficiently equipped to deal with a conflagration of this size. eventually, somebody had the bright idea to actually call the wfd for additional support. by that time, a crowd had gathered on tache ave (the street behind where the photographer is standing in the picture) to watch the blaze making it effective unusable for the fire fighters. since the wfd didn’t have detailed enough maps of st boniface, they weren’t sure which surrounding streets they could get down, turn in or even where the hydrants were located.

by the time the wfd was in a position to help the sbfd, it was too late. the cathedral was unsaveable.

but it wasn’t all bad. architect etienne gaboury was commissioned to rebuild and was given carte blanch to do what he wanted, even tear the ruins down and start from scratch. etienne went against the architectural paradigm and did his best to preserve what he could of the old cathedral. today, you can look across the red river from the forks and still see the remaining part. and i feel the city is a lot better for it
ProteusFox says

This poor city. As a Buffalonian, I feel like I relate heavily to the song “I hate Winnipeg” by the Weakerthans. A complicated love letter to a Grey winter city.