Witching Hour - Dark History: The night downtown Windsor burned

Witching Hour - Dark History It started around 3 a.m. on Oct. 12, 1871, at Ouellette and Pitt. Wind drove the flames west through a downtown built of wood, and Detroit firefighters crossed the river to help. About 100 Windsor buildings were lost.

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Witching Hour is our nightly local history and folklore feature. Ghost stories and legends are retold as stories people tell, not reported as fact. Sources are listed below the story.

Tonight's Witching Hour is dark history from the heart of downtown Windsor.

A fire in the small hours

Around 3 a.m. on Oct. 12, 1871, fire broke out at the corner of Ouellette Avenue and Pitt Street. Accounts blame a hot iron, but they differ on where: in Dandy Fletcher's tailor shop, or in the back of McGregor's livery stable at the same corner.

Wind and wood

A strong wind drove the flames west. Downtown Windsor was built mostly of wood, with frame buildings packed close together, and the fire moved from building to building and block to block. Detroit firefighters crossed the river to help.

By the time it was over, about 100 buildings were lost, among them banks, hotels and stores. The losses topped $100,000, and only part of that was insured. In New York, the next day's paper carried the news in its headline: "The Town of Windsor, Canada, Destroyed."

What the fire left behind

Windsor rebuilt. Ouellette Avenue was widened, and the core went back up in brick and stone instead of wood. The town also laid underground water pipes, and fire hydrants followed.

Next time you walk Ouellette at night, picture it at 3 a.m. in 1871, with the wind at your back and the street on fire.