Shortly before 9pm on a cold February night, a devastating fire swept through Canada’s seat of government.
The Centre Block of Parliament Hill was destroyed on February 3, 1916 in 3 hours, resulting in the death of 7 people and the destruction of the Parliament buildings. 

Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings
Issued by Canada’s post office in 1929
Designer: Herman Herbert Schwartz
Engraver: Robert Savage 

Centre Block die proof, steel engraving, olive-green 

A late evening session in the House of Common was in progress. Luckily, only 20 MPs were in attendance to listen to an MP drone on about about the need for better modes of transporting fish. A few journalists were roosted in the upper gallery, leaning over the railings, hoping for something newsworthy for the morning edition.  At the same time Nova Scotia MP Francis Glass by-passed the session in favour of relaxing in the Common’s Reading room. 

The fire started shortly before 9 p.m. Francis Glass, a Nova Scotia MP, was in the Commons Reading Room when he spotted flames. He called for help and a police constable rushed in to douse the blaze with a fire extinguisher. Instead, the spray scattered embers everywhere, kindling newspapers hanging from dowels along the walls.

“The room was a breeding ground for fire,” House of Commons Curator Johanna Mizgala said. “It was lined with freshly varnished wood panelling, with newspapers and magazines everywhere.”
Disaster and Determination: The heroes of the 1916 Parliament Hill fire

Glass rushed to warn his fellow MPs of the danger, bursting into the Commons with shouts of  “FIRE”. Speaker Albert Sévigny, leapt to his feet and hurried to his quarters to evacuate his family. MPs and press at first didn’t realise how great the danger was, and took time to gather their belongings before leaving. Soon, they were overwhelmed by the thick, black smoke, until a clear minded MP urged members to form a chain and led them out.

As fire fighters rushed to the Hill, Canada’s Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden and his secretary were caught in the chaos inside. They dropped to their knees and blindly felt their way to safety. Up to that time, it had been a regular work day for the everyone. As news spread of the inferno blazing its way through the building, librarians, pages, clerks and maintenance staff, threw themselves into a frenzy of activity, saving whatever they could lay their hands. It took just half hour for the fire to rip through the Reading Room and race to the far end of the building where the Senate staff were.. 

Among the important articles saved were the Senate Mace and the Speaker’s Chair, some furniture, personal papers and works of art.  

For the fourth time in its life, the full-length portrait of Queen Victoria that now hangs in the Senate of Canada Building was rescued. Because the painting was too bulky to be carried through the Senate doors, the canvas was sliced from its frame. In a remarkable coincidence, the Senate employee who helped rescue the painting, A. H. Todd, was the nephew of Alpheus Todd, the parliamentary official who saved the same portrait decades earlier when a mob torched the Parliament of the United Province of Canada in Montréal. 
Disaster and Determination: The heroes of the 1916 Parliament Hill fire

Rescuers and fire fighters fought through the night to stop the fire, but it was hopeless. When the sun rose on February 4, 1916, it was clear not much was left.  The only structure left largely intact was the Library of Parliament. The rest was gone. 

Three Parliamentary employees were crushed to death while trying to save their friends and fellow workers. A ventilation tower collapsed and dropped down onto post office employee Randolph Fanning, Alphonse Desjardins, a boiler-room maintenance worker and his nephew also named Alphonse Desjardins, who was a police officer .  

Despite Speaker Sévigny’s best efforts, two guests visiting his wife died of smoke inhalation. Unfortunately, instead of heading immediately for safety, they went back to the Sévigny apartment rooms to gather up their furs. The fire moved so quickly they were overcome and died of smoke inhalation before they could be rescued.  

MP Bowman Brown Law from Nova Scotia, and assistant House clerk Jean-Baptiste Laplante, were never able to make it out of their upper floor offices. By the time they were alerted, the fire was out of control. They died of heat and smoke inhalation. 

What caused the fire? It’s hard to say. Sabotage, careless smoking, bad wiring? Take your pick.

The Parliament Hill fire is one of the enduring mysteries of Canadian history.

It happened in the middle of the First World War, and there were many at the time who believed it had been deliberately set by German saboteurs.

Just weeks before the fire, an unsavoury American businessman told a newspaper editor that Germans were planning an attack on Ottawa’s capital buildings — the U.S. was not yet at war. American justice officials had received the tip, but the message apparently never made it to Canadian authorities.

Still, an official inquiry came up with no firm conclusion on whether it was arson, a careless smoker, or maybe faulty wiring.
Parliament Hill fire mystery still unsolved 100 years later | CBC News