By Rosalind Russell – Blind River’s Timber Village Museum officially opened a new exhibit yesterday focusing on a historical major fire.
The Out of the Smoke – Remembering the Mississagi Fire of 1948 will focus on the devastation caused by the blaze, which destroyed 323,520 acres of land in the area surrounding Chapleau and the Mississagi area, which resulted in only one death, 19-year-old Edmond Duhaime.
It was first reported on May 25th, 1948 by a pilot on a routine mapping flight and quickly became a very large conflagration.
Fire fighting efforts continued through to August with men recruited from the street with the promise of being paid 50 cents an hour or the threat of a jail sentence if they refused ending with some 1,500 men fighting the blaze.
The exhibit will run throughout the summer.
Photo: Blind River’s Timber Village Museum has opened another exhibition focusing on one of the largest forest fires in Canadian history. Poster provided by Timber Village Museum.
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