Page 6 - Giv'er Miramichi Magazine - Spring Giver 2025

Bringing the Miramichi Fire to Life

A Story Told in Verse By John Vickers

In 1825, Miramichi faced one of the Newcastle of the approaching flames.
most catastrophic wildfires in North “The Sexton’s Sacrifice” tells of John
American history. In a single night, Jackson’s desperate attempt to save St.
entire communities were erased, and Paul’s Church in Bushville while his
survival became a desperate battle own home burns. “Beneath the Cliffs”
against an unstoppable force. My latest follows survivors trapped between fire
book, The Great Miramichi Fire: A and water, while “The Strawberry
Story Told in Poems, brings this pivotal Marsh” recounts how hundreds of
moment back to life—not merely as a Newcastle residents fled into the
collection of facts, but as a vivid, riverside wetlands to escape the inferno.
unfolding narrative told entirely in The fire did not just destroy
verse. buildings—it reshaped lives, the
This is my second book exploring economy, and even the landscape itself.
early 19th-century Miramichi, following Archival research and environmental
Miramichi River Wars: Chatham versus studies reveal how tree rings held
the Northside, which chronicled the evidence of the blaze, and how modern
rivalry be tween timber barons Joseph fire science traces its path through the
Cunard and Alexander Rankin. While forests. But history is not just found in
that book focused on industry and books or science—it is carried in
competition, The Great Miramichi Fire memory, in the land, and in the stories,
shifts to survival, destruction, and we choose to tell.
perseverance—told through the voices Today, Miramichi stands rebuilt, but
of those who lived through it. the fire’s shadow lingers. In the final section, modern voices
The book unfolds in four sections, or bridges of poems, reflect on how history leaves its mark—how the past does
carrying readers through time: life before the fire, the night not disappear but layers itself into the present.
of destruction, the struggle to rebuild, and how the fire still This book is for anyone who loves Miramichi and its
echoes in Miramichi two centuries later. history. It is a gripping story of loss, survival, and a land
Through the eyes of shipbuilders, log drivers, mothers, forever shaped by fire.
prisoners, and even the fire itself in “I Am Fire”, the book The Great Miramichi Fire: A Story Told in Poems is
captures the raw emotion of that fateful night. In “The available at local bookstores and online at
Drummer’s Call”, William Wright beats his drum to warn www.riverbooks.ca.

6 www.GiverMiramichi.com spring 2025