Historic Fires of Fredericton

    Sharkey's Fire
    January 18, 1949

The Sharkey Real Estate Building, located on Queen Street has suffered from many fires.

In 1949, this fire was in the section occupied by Miss Rose Sharkey, one of the remaining family members and part owner. The fire started around noon time on a cold day, appeared to originate on the second floor (568 Queen), burning into walls and up through the third and fourth floors to the roof. It was confined to that half of the building and was under ctrol about 4:00 PM.

Crowds were large

JB Griffiths manning the Trailer Pump

On September 5th, 1959, the building caught fire again, this time owned by Chippins and the section directly next to the Gaiety Theater was undergoing extensive renovations. It caught fire in the early morning hours, about 3:00 AM, completely burning out the new section in a very spectacular fire. Firefighters were able to prevent the spread into the section by the Barker House Alley.

This picture is of the 1959 fire, which happened at night.

The building was completely destroyed in a 1976 fire.