7 - Disasters

Banner image : The menacing glow of the raging Commercial Street Fire illuminates the Bridgewater riverfront business district in the early morning hours of January 12, 1899. from Paul Harmon/Vicki Mossman-Conrad

Background

In this section, we'll have some photos from some of the epic disasters along the LaHave ... some fire, some water and the brave, community-minded folks that deal with it.

Fire

Fire has impacted our area on several occassions:

• January 12, 1899 -- about 1/2 of the commercial district of Bridgewater burned to the ground. The silver lining??? ... the Town incorporated within 6 months to better access reconstruction funding.
  
• July 16, 1925 -- a fire at the Bridgewater trainyard destroyed the machine shop, roundhouse, stores, shops, about 10 freight cars, a coach and eight passenger and freight locomotives.
  
• The iconic Bridgewater Train Station that had been abandoned in the early 1970s ... it burned on December 12, 1982 and was subsequently torn down.
  

And if it seems that fire is only in the past, since this project ended in May 2017, a major fire engulfed downtown Bridgewater destroying a section of the Main Street.

Flooding

Flooding is a fact of life living along a major watercourse subject to wide variations in run off.

But every once in a while, the flooding is more extreme:

• 1902 flooding threatened the dam and mills above Bridgewater
  
• 1956 flooding is the highest on record
  
• 1971 excess ice flow took out the Old Bridge
  
• 2003 flooding -- second highest on record -- resulted in loss of life and major damage to several bridges
  
• And then there was the drought of 2016 with the lowest water levels on record
  

Photo and text from Philip Spencer ... April 1902 showing the Lower (Glenwood) Mill of the E.D. Davison & Sons Lumber Co. A spring freshet has overwhelmed everything in its path, destroying the log booms, weakening the dam and undermining the footings of the mill itself. All the logs held in booms in the LaHave, which are clearly seen in other photos, have been washed away as well as many thousands of feet of milled lumber. Even the sawdust incinerator was in danger of collapse. This happened often and was costly and time-consuming to repair. The event would have had disastrous effects on all dams and businesses on the banks of the LaHave River, a powerful waterway that was not to be trifled with.

This photo generated the most reader comments by far! A few follow ...

Wallace Veinot - I was there watching when the ice took out the bridge. I spent all day in Bridgewater to watch the water rise.

Mildred Lohnes-Rhodenizer - It was a slow build- but you could hear the metal groaning for quite a while- and the top section went pretty much all in one piece.

Kathy Powers - Hubby lived next door to the creamery on Lahave St and was standing by the bridge forever so long waiting for something to happen. As he walked away to go home down it come. So he guesses it went down fast. He also remembers all kids from the East side of town had to travel by bus all the way to Cookville to get to school and this was for a quite awhile until they put a temporary bridge there.

Keith Oakes - We were playing ball hockey on the old ABCO Acadia parking lot that is now Shipyard Landing. I ran to the river's edge to retrieve the ball and looked up river just in time to see the bridge go into the river. What followed, downstream, was like something from a movie. huge sheets of ice, some almost three feet thick and as big as a baseball diamond,, hit the shallows at the bottom of Pine Street. They were pushed vertically into the air by the ice and water behind. Standing momentarily straight up and down they fell shattering like a bombs going off. It was a very violent series of events, ones I will never forget.

Rose Gallant McClanahan - We lived up LaHave St on the other side of Crouse's Warehouse, I think it is Choak's now. We had just come home from Sunday school when the ice started moving. It didn't take long for the ice to come up over the riverbank and flood over the street and into our yard. I ran into the house to tell Mom that we had icebergs in the back yard. Neighbors carried Mom out of the house as she was on the phone trying to get in touch with Dad as he was working down in LaHave. I carried my youngest brother out. Mom had a turkey on the counter she was getting ready to put in the oven. The neighbors raised up any furniture they could on the main floor just in case the water rose up that far, but it only came up to the top of the basement. Dad was able to get across the bridge and drove us to my grandmother's in Dartmouth. We stayed there until the water subsided and we were able to get back into our house. We were about half way to the city when we heard on the radio that the bridge had been taken out. There were 5 kids in the back seat that were cheering as we knew we wouldn't be able to get to school. I think we only missed a couple of days before the bus was organized to take us.

Fun Fact : Do you get nervous when its been raining for a while and the river level is rising? Environment Canada has real time water level measurement online. You can see the current water level of the LaHave River and how it changes.

Photo and text from Philip Spencer ... The drought of summer 2016 reduced the LaHave to a mere trickle, the lowest anyone can recall. The water so low that you could walk clear across and not get your feet wet. The photo taken at the riverbed just North of the railway bridge.

Hug a Fireman

If you are in the middle of a disaster and looking for assistance, the Fire Department will probably be the first on site.

Bridgewater, New Germany and Northfield all have fire departments. 25 more form the Lunenburg Regional Fire & Emergency Service.

In addition to fires, they do many things as you can see from the following ...

Paul Harmon writes ... This view shows the Bridgewater Fire Brigade, as they existed sometime in the late 1800s. The picture was taken in front of the old station on St. Andrew's Street. The fire department started in 1876 and had its headquarters on St. Andrew's Street until 1922 when they moved into new quarters at the site of the present town office. In 1962 the fire department moved to their present quarters on Dominion Street.

And how about the Bridgewater Fireman's Band !!!

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