Home » On The Line

Lisa Anne Smith

6 June 2014 | Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Post Print This Post

The author and historian Lisa Anne Smith discusses her new book, Vancouver Is Ashes: The Great Fire of 1886 (Ronsdale Press, 2014), with Joseph Planta.


Vancouver Is Ashes: The Great Fire of 1886 by Lisa Anne Smith (Ronsdale Press, 2014).

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Vancouver Is Ashes


Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

On 13 June 1886 a fire engulfed the newly incorporated city of Vancouver and reduced it to smouldering ash. A new book looks at this important and transformative day in the city’s history, Vancouver Is Ashes: The Great Fire of 1886. Its author Lisa Anne Smith joins me now. She has written a very fine book offering eye-witness accounts, and critical analysis of the causes, response, and aftermath of the fire. It’s a riveting book that takes you right into the scene, the chaos of that day in June 1886 when Vancouver burned, and what happened after. And whether it could happen again, is discussed as well. Lisa Anne Smith is a long time education docent at the Museum of Vancouver, and is a member of the Native Daughters of BC, who own and operate the Old Hastings Mill Store Museum at the foot of Alma Street in Vancouver, it is Vancouver’s oldest building. Her published books include Our Friend Joe: The Joe Fortes Story, and Travels with St. Roch: A Book for Kids. Vancouver is Ashes is published by Ronsdale Press. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Lisa Anne Smith; Ms. Smith, good morning.