The first major fire to strike the Ottawa Valley occurred in 1857. It began at the mouth of the BonnechΦre River and devastated what was known as "the Big Pine Country". It was caused by a piece of burning paper from a musket fired by a river driver. William Harris, Crown Lands Agent for Renfrew, testified before a commission in Bytown investigating the timber trade in 1851: "After all the large lumber is cut off a limit, so many trees, blocks, chips, etc., are down on the ground that pine woods are subject to and frequently destroyed by fire.
Courtesy: Macnamara Collection, Public Archives of Ontario.
