The fire started somewhere along Boulevard Saint-Lauren here but the precise location needs to be documented.
The Great Fire of 1852 was a fire in Montreal that began on July 8, 1852, and left as many as 10,000 people homeless, at a time when the city's population was only 57,000, and destroyed almost half of the city's housing. The fire occurred at a time when the city's recently constructed reservoir, located at the site of today's Saint-Louis Square, was drained and closed for repairs. The first fire broke out at a tavern on Saint-Laurent Boulevard and spread quickly, fanned by strong winds and hot, dry summer weather.[2]