06/03/2026
Today we are sharing a retrospective from Owen Fitzgerald on the Main-a-Dieu forest fire of 1976.
“It was fifty years ago, on Sunday, June 6, 1976, that a forest fire almost wiped the small fishing village of Main-a-Dieu off the map. This picturesque fishing village is on the east coast of Cape Breton Island.
The forest fires ravaged Main-a-Dieu, and Big Ridge near Marion Bridge, destroying homes and spreading panic. While there were no deaths, the fire caused extensive damage to the community, destroying 16 homes and the Catholic Church in Main-a-Dieu. A couple of firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation. It was one of the largest fires in Nova Scotia up to that point, consuming nearly 13,000 hectares of forest. The devastation prompted the Cape Breton Post to devote its entire front page to the event the following day.
Post reporter Ian MacNeil set the scene in his lead story, one day after the wildfire. He wrote, “Cape Breton woodlands exploded with fury on five fronts Sunday leaving scores homeless and causing damage estimated at more than a million dollars”. Some 30 years later, Cape Breton Post, reporter, TJ Colello, wrote a Reflections article about the Main-a-Dieu fire. These two stories provided much of the content for this article.
That Sunday in June 1976, the tiny fishing village of Main-a-Dieu bore the brunt of the fiery onslaught. Flames, spurred on by temperatures in the high 80s, leveled at least 17 structures including the historic Immaculate Conception Church and Glebe House. At least 13 homes were destroyed along with a number of trailers, motor vehicles and fishing boats.
Bringing the story to life were a number of vivid photos taken by Owen Fitzgerald, a young Cape Breton Post photographer. In particular, was a compelling front-page photo showing of a pair of firemen pouring water on a large cross as the doomed church burned in the background. This photo was published in newspapers across the country and the Montreal Star newspaper used the photo prominently on the front page of their Tuesday newspaper. Fitzgerald also captured photos of a mother and her two children as they fled the oncoming fire and another family fleeing in the back of a pickup truck.
Owen Fitzgerald said that as he was driving into Main-a-Dieu he could see these huge clouds of smoke. He made his way down to the harbour, and at the corner where the big Catholic Church was located, the church was just a skeleton. It was too late! They couldn’t save it, recalled Fitzgerald. “And then I saw these two firemen in the graveyard and they were hosing down this large cross that was there in the graveyard. What else could they do?” The dangers posed by the wildfires made for a tense day, he added.
The fire stretched beyond Main-a-Dieu. The woods were burning on the other side of the Louisbourg highway and near Marion Bridge. “When I was driving towards Mira, the fire was making its way through the woods and sometimes it would start crossing the road and you just couldn’t see anything”, he said. “I was so focused on trying to get the best photos to show the destruction and impact on the community and the people, I had to make sure I didn’t get myself into a dangerous situation myself.”
“It all happened so fast,” said Rev. Francis Dolhanty, in the June 7 Post article. “I thought the fire was under control at noon and less than an hour later my church, and Glebe were destroyed.”
In another article, Mrs. John Burke, 56, said she lost everything except for the clothes on her back. “It was incredible, the spread of the fire,” she said. “We just looked out the window, saw it coming and ran for our lives.”
Years later in a story about the fire, Mary Price, 83, of Little Lorraine was quoted as saying she would never forget that hectic day. “Fire crews had been called out to a handful of minor fires in the woods on Saturday, but everything seemed to be under control by Sunday morning.”
But after church that morning, when Price and her husband decided to take their three young children swimming in Mira, as soon as they got over the hill from Little Lorraine to Main-a-Dieu they were greeted by billowing clouds of smoke.
Price instantly thought of her grandmother, living alone in Main-a-Dieu. On Sunday afternoons, older people in the community would often take an afternoon nap after dinner.
“I went, and sure enough, she was asleep. She was close to 90 then and when we got her in the car, she didn’t know what was happening, but she said Mary, we have to go back, my money is under the mattress.” I said, “Oh Grandma Lahey, look, don’t worry about your money,” and I wasn’t worrying about money.
When they got to Little Lorraine, they packed their clothing in the trunk of the car, just in case. But it didn’t get to Little Lorraine, where I still live. So we saved our house and still have it, but my husband has passed away now and all my children are grown and I live alone here.
The blaze was described as the worst of its kind since the 1950s, when a fire ravaged Pleasant Bay, forcing a sea evacuation by some families.
The photographs that Owen Fitzgerald took that day are in safe keeping at the Beaton Institute Archives at Cape Breton University. When Fitzgerald retired, he donated his extensive collection of photographs that he took in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, to the Beaton Institute.
In closing, even tragic events can come with some lighter moments. The bishop came the next day from Antigonish. Now, the church may have burned down, but the school never burned down. So the bishop went over to talk to the children at the school and told them how lucky they were. But one young fella spoke up and said: Yeah, but the (bleeping) school didn’t burn!”
Image credits:
Main-a-Dieu Forest Fire, June 1976. Photographs by Owen Fitzgerald. M-41.
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