Artist hopes Great Fire mural will remind people how easily heritage can go up in flames

As you walk up and down McBride's Hill — a short, steep side street connecting two key roads in downtown St. John's — flames erupt beside you.

They spread in red waves, engulf buildings and boats, and light up the purple waters of the city's harbour.

"You can position yourself in there," said artist Julie Lewis, whose dramatic mural depicting the Great Fire of 1892 is 21 metres long. Full of vibrant colour, it looks like a background for an animated film. 

Lewis, who completed the mural in mid-November after nearly three months of painting, became immersed in the intertwined stories of the Great Fire and the city's development. 

She also became much more aware of the value of the city's history and heritage buildings.

"I think the history can be so quickly forgotten," she said in an interview.

After another year in which the city lost a number of its heritage structures to fire or neglect, Lewis hopes the mural will remind people how easily history can go up in flames.

Painting the flames was 'emotional'

The Great Fire started on the evening of July 8, 1892, in a stable at the top of Carter's Hill, on the north side of the St. John's harbour.

Within just a few hours, flames were barrelling down the hill, destroying homes, stores and warehouses.

By morning, most of St. John's was left smouldering and 11,000 people were homeless, camping out in neighbouring parks and open spaces, with little more than the clothes they were wearing when they fled.

"Putting the flames in for me was an emotional day," Lewis said.

"Everything was at peace in the picture and then, when I had to put those in, I had to think about how fire spreads, how fire looks when it's in a doorway, how it looks when it's coming out through a window."

"You're counting levels on warehouses that are four storeys high and you're thinking, that's livelihoods right there." 

'History can be so quickly forgotten'

It's a dark subject for people to confront when strolling along a walkway on their way out for a night on the town or for a day of work, and Lewis said it was tough to balance the subject matter with the medium: people expect public murals to be bright and uplifting, even fun.

"It had to have the depth of history but you didn't want it to be loud," she said. "But then I didn't want it to be dark and subdued, and be depressing when it gets cold in February."

But the acknowledgement of the event, especially in a public place, she said, is important and necessary.

"There have been efforts over the last decades to flatten some of our older buildings and make way for newer buildings," she said. 

"But our city does have a really strong value, our place, our people and, most importantly, our history."

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It's easy for people to walk quickly down McBride's Hill, or any street in St. John's, she said, intent on their destination, not noticing what's around them.

"But if you actually stop and you put your head up, and you look at the intricate little parts of a building and you take a look at the look at the plaques and you look at the city as thought you weren't living there … I would like to think that people will take a look at this piece and start to put their heads up instead of down."