In consideration of an annual fee, the protection offered by the village's fire-fighting service may be extended to non-residents. Such far- flung communities as Canavoy , St. Patrick's Road, Peakes , Fort Augustus , Dromore and are presently within the area for which cover¬ age has been arranged. When serious outbreaks occur, mutual aid agree¬ ments made with other Departments, particularly those of Morell and Sherwood , come into effect. By 1957 it was considered that the fire hall, a made-over remnant of the old Charles Newberry store, had outlived its usefulness. The new structure was built by Francis Affleck and, with its completion, the quality of the service afforded by the Department was greatly enhanced. Fire trucks kept in the heated building are ready to roll at any time. In 1967, the Mount Stewart Recreational Room was added to the building as a centennial project. This annex, used for the meetings and social activi¬ ties of the Fire Department, is also available for public functions. The first fire alarm consisted of a sledge hammer and a large steel ring, prob¬ ably a train wheel, which was suspended on a cross-piece on two posts. This has been superseded by a three horse power electric siren. Of the fires that have occurred in Mount Stewart since 1894, none was more potentially catastrophic than the blaze which erupted in the old Canadian Legion Hall while a capacity crowd was witnessing a motion picture. Originating in the projecting room as a result of some film having ignited, the fire made rapid progress; yet, there was no panic, and the audience gained the outdoors without anyone being hurt. Although the hall and a nearby warehouse were completely destroyed, this con¬ flagration of March 8, 1947 was cheated of a grimmer harvest — that of human lives. For a time, however, during the night of June 19, 1952, it appeared that the devastation of the 1894 holocaust was to be repeated. Encouraged by a brisk wind blowing from the north west, a fire which originated in Fred W. Clark 's feed mill rapidly spread to engulf Ernest Affleck 's house and barn, and a garage and barn belonging to the United Church manse. For a time the manse itself was in grave danger and, although the century-old church building was not in the direct path of the wind, its windows bear the scars of its brush with danger to the present day. Had it not been for the prompt and effective action of the village firemen in containing the outbreak, the extent of the damage, would, undoubtedly, have assumed much greater proportions. Spectators in the grandstands at the Provincial Exhibition on the afternoon of August 19, 1937 were able to see rolling clouds of smoke far to the north east. This was the tangible evidence of a brush fire which had been raging in the French Village area for almost two weeks, despite the efforts of the Mounted Police and a large number of volunteer fighters working under their direction. Although not as destructive of farm build¬ ings as the blaze of May, 1933 in the area which consumed the homes of John A. McCormack and Ronald Currie , it, for a time, had threatened the residences of Wallace Mclntyre and D. J. MacDonald . When it would appear that the flames at length had been extinguished, rising winds would fan smouldering embers into renewed activity, and each change in the direction of the wind would send the fire along a new front. It was not until August 30th that this most pernicious of forest fires was finally reported to be burning itself out. In the early morning of January 15, 1963, a drama of heroic pro¬ portions occurred in the blazing home of Mr. and Mrs. Freeman Jackson . —56—