The Great Fire of 1936
One Young Mother’s Escape from the Flames
By Melissa Ramsay
A November Morning
Late on the evening of November 18, 1936, Jack Copithorne came up the hill from his nearby home to see his cousin Percy. Jack had noticed what Percy’s wife, Edna, later described as “a pin point of smoke southwest on the range.” [1, 2] Edna also remembered seeing “a very small puff of smoke up west in the part we now call Sibbald Flats.” [3] The men were concerned. Cattle were still grazing on the range near Jumping Pound and Moose mountains, and the season had already been extraordinarily dry. Percy and Jack decided to ride to the roundup camp early the following morning. [1] “I remember setting bread and baking it that night, along with fries and other food to send up with the wagon later in the morning but the wagon never left home,” Edna wrote. [1] By morning, the small column of smoke had become a devastating prairie fire. [1, 4]
A Country Ready to Burn
“The year of 1936 was the driest one anyone could remember in our district,” Edna recalled. [1] The Depression had brought years of hardship to western Canadian farming and ranching families. Little hay or grain had been harvested, and Percy was already worried about finding enough feed to carry the cattle through winter. [1] “The dirty 30s seemed to be extra dirty to us when we lost our beloved parents,” Edna wrote, while acknowledging that many Canadians were suffering even greater hardships. [1] Percy and Jack left on horseback around four o’clock on the morning of November 19. By the time they reached Frank Sibbald’s place, they encountered the advancing fire. [1, 3] The wind drove smoke, dust and burning debris across the countryside. Percy and neighbouring ranchers worked to protect buildings and livestock. A tractor was sent to plough a protective furrow near Sibbald’s house. [1] But, as Edna remembered, “there was just no way of stopping that fire.” [1]
A Decision to Leave
At home, Edna was caring for her young daughter, Sheila. She was also expecting her second child, Marshall, the following March. [3] “I was quite stout, expecting Marshall in March,” she recalled. [3] The district’s party telephone line connected seventeen households. The Cochrane telephone exchange, where Ernie Crowe served as an Alberta Government Telephones agent, helped residents
receive news of the advancing fire. Edna remembered a final warning from the operator to seek safety in the creek. [3, 5, 6] Instead, following advice to leave by car, she attempted to reach Cochrane. Visibility was dreadful. [3] As they turned north, the Messer family’s recently renovated house was burning. Farther along, Brushy Ridge School was also in flames. Edna could see no sign of the children. [3] The road to Cochrane was no longer safe. They turned east, hoping to reach Calgary by another route. Along the way, Edna saw burning buildings and animals fleeing before the fire. Some were already engulfed in flames. [3] They turned south again, hoping to reach the Coach Road and continue toward Calgary. They never made it. [3]
Trapped on the Road
Near the Wallace property, the wind had blown a large wooden hay stacker through a fence and onto the road. Smoke and cinders made it almost impossible to see. The car crashed into the structure and became trapped. [3] A young man was driving for Edna. As the stacker’s boards caught fire, he climbed out and tore away the burning pieces, which were carried off by the wind. [3] Inside the car, Edna and Sheila struggled to breathe. [3] “Fortunately I had a big jar of milk with me for poor little Sheila, and we used that to wipe our eyes and nose and mouth so we could breathe.” [3] Edna feared that the car might explode. A pail containing tools and loose hay hung from the stacker close to her side of the vehicle. [3] “Suddenly my side of the car was a wall of flames outside but it soon burnt out.” [3] For a time, mother and daughter were trapped in the smoke and heat, uncertain whether they would survive. [3]
The Rescue
Early that afternoon, as the air began to clear, Edna remembered Uncle Sam Copithorne coming along the road. He was surprised to find Edna and Sheila there. Sam took them to Vera Wallace’s house for a cup of tea, then drove them home. [3] Ronald Wallace, who was nine years old at the time, later recorded another account of the incident. He recalled that his father and uncle Bill encountered the burning hay stacker while travelling toward Brushy Ridge School. They found a car caught in the wooden structure, beat out the flames and chopped it free. [7] Ronald remembered that the men took Edna back to the Wallace home before continuing toward the school. The accounts preserve different details of the rescue. They do not establish whether Uncle Sam and the Wallace men were present together or arrived at different times. [3, 7] Percy did not return home until evening. [3] “Imagine my worry for him, and of course he thought I was safe at home all that time.” [3]
For much of the day, husband and wife had been separated by the fire, each unaware of the danger the other had faced. [3]
The Fire’s Other Victims
While Edna struggled to escape, the children at Brushy Ridge School were facing their own ordeal. Ronald Wallace remembered that by ten o’clock that morning, the classroom had become so dark with smoke and dust that the pupils could no longer see the blackboard. [7] At approximately eleven, Mr. Callaway came to speak to their teacher, Miss Davis. She sent an older pupil, Carl Wilson, to warn the Messer family, then instructed the remaining children to collect their coats and run across the road to the Callaway house. [7] Ted Callaway eventually loaded his wife Mamie, their children Bob and Evelyn, and nine schoolchildren into his car and drove north toward Cochrane. Miss Davis and several others remained behind, eventually finding shelter at the Edge home. [7] At the Cochrane Hotel, the evacuated children waited for news of their families. A Calgary reporter photographed them and later treated them to doughnuts and hot chocolate. [7] The school and its barn were destroyed. The Wallace family’s horse, Queenie, had been sheltering in the barn. Harry Edge managed to rescue her, but she suffered such severe smoke inhalation that she had to be put down the following day. [7] Across the district, other families suffered terrible losses. Harry Johnson later recalled losing his barn, all his feed and seventeen purebred registered cows, although the family home survived. [8] Bob Callaway remembered the ferocity of the wind and the eventual relief when it eased and rain began to fall. [9] The fire swept across the countryside, destroying buildings, fences, telephone poles, feed and livestock. [1, 3, 7, 8]
What Remained
When Edna returned home, the ranch buildings were still standing. The fire had passed dangerously close. [3] She remembered it jumping the creek, “about a mile jump from one hill top to another,” just north of their home. [3] Although the buildings survived, the family’s livestock and grazing land had suffered terribly. Approximately twenty recently weaned calves had been blinded by the fire and had to be put down. [3] The ranch had already produced too little winter feed because of the drought. What had been harvested was destroyed. Survival was only the beginning of the family’s difficulties. [1, 3]
The Days After
When Percy returned from trying to save livestock, the family’s beloved collie, Buster, was missing. Edna remembered how much they loved the dog and how little hope they had of seeing him again. [1]
The following day, people travelled from Calgary and Cochrane to see the devastation. The countryside was blackened. Fences and telephone poles had disappeared, leaving miles of burned ground. [1] Percy’s cousin Claude Copithorne was driving through the Brushy Ridge area, approximately three miles north of the ranch, when he noticed something move. He stopped and called out. Buster came racing toward him and jumped into the car. [1] Claude continued his journey before visiting Percy and Edna, bringing the missing dog home. Grandma wondered about that reunion for years. [1] “We often wonder if Buster recognized a Copithorne about Claude, or if there was something familiar about his voice.” [1] With thousands of people travelling through the area, the family found it remarkable that their shy dog had approached Claude. [1]
Another Narrow Escape
The following week, as the ranchers searched for winter feed, Percy’s brother George offered to take Percy, Frank and Clem Gardner north toward Olds in his newly purchased car. [1] A few miles north of Calgary, the car struck loose gravel, rolled into the ditch and overturned approximately four times before coming to rest upside down against a telephone pole. Remarkably, no one was injured. [1] Grandma recalled that everything inside the car was “all mixed up like a pup’s breakfast.” [1] Later that week, the men reached the Olds district, where arrangements were made to winter cattle on farms with available straw stacks. [1]
The Long Winter Ahead
Percy later described the fire as the worst feed crisis he had experienced. [10] That evening, when the situation seemed hopeless, Kenneth R. Coppock, secretary-manager of the Western Stock Growers, visited him and offered to help. [10, 11] Coppock helped Percy locate straw stacks in the Olds district and arrange government-supported transportation for the cattle. [10] Percy recalled that approximately five hundred or more cattle were distributed in small groups among different farms. Not all survived. [10] At one farm, some cattle were receiving too little water. Snow-blocked roads prevented Percy from checking on them for weeks, and several died. [10] Percy remembered what happened to the dead animals with a distinctly rancher’s sense of humour: [10]
“Instead of cows living high on the hog, the hogs were living high on the cows.” [10] Edna remembered the extraordinary snow that winter, piled as high as ten feet beside some roads. [1] “What a winter that was!” [1]
Men from the ranch spent time in the Olds district caring for the cattle, while the family worked to rebuild its feed supply and prepare for the following year. [1, 10] For Percy, spring brought a welcome homecoming. [10] “It was a happy day the following spring when I trailed them home from Cochrane. It took some of them longer than others to make the trip, but they sure knew their way home.” [10]
Remembering the Fire
Nearly ninety years later, many of Edna’s grandchildren continue to travel the roads through the countryside where the fire once burned. Grandma knew how to tell a good story. She also knew how to live the life stories are made of. And she was always happy to share a story over a cup of tea. If you were lucky, there might even be cinnamon toast.
Sources and Endnotes
1. Edna Avis Brown Copithorne, “Edna’s Story 10 (FGK 127),” The Sattvic Life, 20 November 2021. https://thesattviclife.com/2021/11/20/ednas-story-10-fgk-127/
2. Melissa Ramsay, family geographical knowledge of the neighbouring Copithorne homes (2026). Edna wrote that Jack “came up to visit Percy”; “up the hill from his nearby home” is the author’s geographical clarification.
3. Edna Avis Brown Copithorne, “Grandma’s Account of the Great Fire of 1936,” The Sattvic Life, 9 February 2023. https://thesattviclife.com/2023/02/09/grandmas-account-of-the-great-fire-of-1936/
4. Bob Callaway, “The Brushy Ridge Fire,” in Big Hill Country (1977), p. 718, reproduced by CHAPS in “Blue Sky Memories,” 13 January 2019. https://chapscochrane.com/blue-sky-memories/
5. CHAPS, “Walter Crowe Family.” https://chapscochrane.com/walter-crowe-family/ (Ernie Crowe’s Alberta Government Telephones agency, 1929–1948).
6. CHAPS, “Miscellaneous but Necessary,” telephone exchange section. https://chapscochrane.com/miscellaneous-but-necessary/ (party lines and switchboard operations).
7. Ronald Wallace, “The Prairie Fire That Drove Us From School,” reproduced in The Sattvic Life, 29 October 2024. https://thesattviclife.com/2024/10/29/the-prairie-fire-that-drove-us-from-school/
8. Harry Johnson’s recollection in CHAPS, “Alfred Callaway Family of Brushy Ridge.” https://chapscochrane.com/alfred-callaway-family-of-brushy-ridge/
9. Bob Callaway, “The Brushy Ridge Fire,” Big Hill Country, p. 718; reproduced in CHAPS, “Blue Sky Memories.” https://chapscochrane.com/blue-sky-memories/
10. Percy Copithorne, “Pigs Living High on the Cow — Percy’s version of the 1936 Fire,” The Sattvic Life, 21 December 2024. https://thesattviclife.com/2024/12/21/pigs-living-high-on-the-cow-percys- version-of-the-1936-fire/
11. Margaret Buckley, “Merino Ranch,” reproduced by CHAPS, 14 April 2020. https://chapscochrane.com/merino-ranch/ (identifies Ken Coppock as secretary-manager of the Western Stock Growers Association).
