La France Textiles Canada Ltd
"It was the La France Plushes Ltd ( La France Textiles Canada Ltd.), manager Dr. L.A. Koeppel, . . . a two-story brick structure at 611 Dundas St. which took up 3/4 of the city block of Dundas St,. Beale St., Adelaide St., and York St., where the Police Station and Swiss Chalet/Harvey's are now located.Now all Police Station.
The fire started at approximately 5pm on Saturday 26 January 1929, in the middle front of the Dundas St. basement, quite close to the street; probable cause being spontaneous combustion from rags from a contractor's crew who had just finished cleaning up after painting a new show-room and coating the hardwood floors with an oil dressing. They finished the job at about noon on the 26th.
The Massey-Harris (. . . located directly east of La France) sent their private fire team and were the first on the scene. The Woodstock Fire Dept. was next, followed by Ingersoll, Paris, Brantford and London Fire Depts. There was a major problem because there was no standardization of hose threads . . . they could not attach their hoses to our fire hydrants. Later . . . universal connectors were rushed into the city, but by that time the building was already doomed.
At the beginning of the fire . . . a band of volunteers, mainly of worker's (weavers who could visualize their jobs going up in smoke) . . . entered the inferno, armed with only Bickle soda and acid fire extinguishers. I find it hard to fathom, that these employees went into the inferno with only hand fire extinguishers. At the start, it was just a handful of weavers, which grew to include almost every worker from the factory; all striving to save their only means of employment!
The main reason why the fire spread from the basement to the upper floors was because of the elevator shaft, which acted as a flue. The building was quite old and was made up largely of wooden supports, beams, rafters, and floors. With many years of generously lubricating the textile machinery with oil, the wood had become soaked . . .. It is astonishing that none of the volunteers perished . . ..
At 10 pm on the same day, a section of the front wall collapsed outwards onto Dundas St., taking out the power lines, which caused a blackout in the main section of town.
. . . Because the main office had been totally destroyed, carpenters built a partition along the south end of the "Mending room" to create an office, . . . furnished with desks, chairs, etc, . . . ready and open for business on Monday, January 28th.
Historic Facts: . . . The plant, [the bankrupt premises of an earlier company ] . . . purchased by Edmund Duval and Barney Davis from Philadelphia PA, USA., re-opened in May 1926. [It included] . . . a chimney made of brick [that] stood 167 feet., . . . the city's tallest smokestack.
1938 - The company was involved in what was, until that time, the longest and most violent strike in the city's history. The strike ended after 40 days when City Council refused to grant financial relief to the strikers and their families.
1971 - [It] made fake fur hides, jaguar, cheetah, ocelot, and leopard, because of the big drivers of the World Wildlife Federation.
1972-La France Textiles Canada Ltd. made the double-pile wool insulating fabric for the Arctic Parkas for the armed services (23,000 yards of material) and also made carpet for the Ontario display at the 1970ts World Fair in Japan.
1983-La France Textiles was another plant closure in Woodstock of this era.
1984- The building was torn down and a year later the Police Station and Swiss Chalet/Harvey's were built.
Sources: - Milnes, Herbert, �The Beginnings of La France Textiles Canada Ltd.� (Woodstock Public Library, local history files) - Woodstock Directory 1928 (Woodstock Public Library) - Symons, Doug M., �The Village That Straddled A Swamp
The fire started at approximately 5pm on Saturday 26 January 1929, in the middle front of the Dundas St. basement, quite close to the street; probable cause being spontaneous combustion from rags from a contractor's crew who had just finished cleaning up after painting a new show-room and coating the hardwood floors with an oil dressing. They finished the job at about noon on the 26th.
The Massey-Harris (. . . located directly east of La France) sent their private fire team and were the first on the scene. The Woodstock Fire Dept. was next, followed by Ingersoll, Paris, Brantford and London Fire Depts. There was a major problem because there was no standardization of hose threads . . . they could not attach their hoses to our fire hydrants. Later . . . universal connectors were rushed into the city, but by that time the building was already doomed.
At the beginning of the fire . . . a band of volunteers, mainly of worker's (weavers who could visualize their jobs going up in smoke) . . . entered the inferno, armed with only Bickle soda and acid fire extinguishers. I find it hard to fathom, that these employees went into the inferno with only hand fire extinguishers. At the start, it was just a handful of weavers, which grew to include almost every worker from the factory; all striving to save their only means of employment!
The main reason why the fire spread from the basement to the upper floors was because of the elevator shaft, which acted as a flue. The building was quite old and was made up largely of wooden supports, beams, rafters, and floors. With many years of generously lubricating the textile machinery with oil, the wood had become soaked . . .. It is astonishing that none of the volunteers perished . . ..
At 10 pm on the same day, a section of the front wall collapsed outwards onto Dundas St., taking out the power lines, which caused a blackout in the main section of town.
. . . Because the main office had been totally destroyed, carpenters built a partition along the south end of the "Mending room" to create an office, . . . furnished with desks, chairs, etc, . . . ready and open for business on Monday, January 28th.
Historic Facts: . . . The plant, [the bankrupt premises of an earlier company ] . . . purchased by Edmund Duval and Barney Davis from Philadelphia PA, USA., re-opened in May 1926. [It included] . . . a chimney made of brick [that] stood 167 feet., . . . the city's tallest smokestack.
1938 - The company was involved in what was, until that time, the longest and most violent strike in the city's history. The strike ended after 40 days when City Council refused to grant financial relief to the strikers and their families.
1971 - [It] made fake fur hides, jaguar, cheetah, ocelot, and leopard, because of the big drivers of the World Wildlife Federation.
1972-La France Textiles Canada Ltd. made the double-pile wool insulating fabric for the Arctic Parkas for the armed services (23,000 yards of material) and also made carpet for the Ontario display at the 1970ts World Fair in Japan.
1983-La France Textiles was another plant closure in Woodstock of this era.
1984- The building was torn down and a year later the Police Station and Swiss Chalet/Harvey's were built.
Sources: - Milnes, Herbert, �The Beginnings of La France Textiles Canada Ltd.� (Woodstock Public Library, local history files) - Woodstock Directory 1928 (Woodstock Public Library) - Symons, Doug M., �The Village That Straddled A Swamp