Sources: First man at the fire

Cities used to burn down. The most famous example of this is the Great Chicago Fire but it is far from alone. The Saint John fire of June 1877 was big enough to merit a Wikipedia entry.

A number of books were written about the fire or mention it and at least one, The Story of Firefighting in Canada by Donal M. Baird says that my great-grandfather Denis Costigan was the first witness to the fire.

It was on Wednesday, June 20, 1877, a day that had dawned cloudless and with a promise of more of the exceptional heat that the city had basked in for 6 solid weeks. Not a drop of rain had fallen for a month and temperatures had been 75 to 80 degrees for some days. A gusty wind blew up clouds of dust from the streets as the day progressed. It was very unlike Saint John, its weather normally variegated, with moderate temperatures, cool rain and fogs interspersed with clear days, always affected by the conjunction of warm land air with the cold waters of the Bay of Fundy. The unusual dryness had evidently resulted in some fires in the woods to the north and west, and smoke from them was plain to be seen, delaying the realization by many that a major fire was burning in the city, even after the fire alarms sounded.  

Getting a start on a long buggy trip early in the morning was Thomas Marter, the aging Fire Chief, accompanied by a member of the city fire committee – they were heading upriver to buy several new horses for the fire department. They would not be back until after 6 p.m. As the day got underway, industry came to life with the sound of the caulking hammers from the shipyards in Portland and the whine of the big sawmill of Kirk and Daniel at the very head of the harbor on the west side of the North Slip, where the head of Long Wharf is now.  

In the early afternoon about 2:30, a young coalheaver, Dennis Costigan, looked up from his work and caught a glimpse of a small flame on the roof of Henry Fairweather’s storage shed on the opposite wharf. He told his fellow workers and ran around to the other side of the slip. "The flame was about a foot and a half in width on the roof", he said, "I ran down the alley and got on the roof. I tore up a board and tried to make a hole in the roof to put the fire out. Just then I heard the York Point fire bell ringing. I think I was on the roof for about a quarter of an hour. I stayed until the hose came. I did not get the fire out. It ran up the roof and I got down. The hosecart came and they put the hose inside the barn." 

This is from notes I took once upon a time. Unfortunately, I don't know where I found it. I didn't read the actual book so I must have seen it online. Perhaps at this link.

A couple of things of note. There were not many Costigans in Saint John, fewer than thirty and there was only one Denis Costigan (spellings of Denis, Dennis and Dennie vary in documents of the period). He would have been 32 in 1877. That is not young and certainly was not by 1877 standards. I have no record of him being a coalheaver but his actual profession is a complicated story I will get to later. For now, suffice to say that he declared a number of different jobs over the years so coalheaver is plausible.

Not mentioned in this story is the fact that Dennis Costigan was a member of the fire department. Another book, History of the Great Fire in Saint John, June 20 and 21, 1877 (p. 353) by Russell Herman Conwell tells us that Costigan was one of twelve members of Hose Company 3. Why would Costigan head off to fight the fire alone instead of joining his company? What did he think he was going to do up on that roof with nothing but his bare hands?