Parham Fire – One Year Later

Jeff Green | Jun 09, 2021

(warning – this article may trigger painful memories for some people)

It was not something that Parham residents, Central Frontenac Firefighters, Frontenac Paramedics, or the Frontenac OPP detachment could have foreseen.

In the midst of an oppressive early summer heat wave, in timber dry conditions, three months into a once in a century pandemic, a man, who was known to be volatile set fire to a mattress behind his house in order to burn the house down.

He then announced his intention to burn the village to the ground and began firing his shotgun and at of his neighbours who came to see what was going on.

Neighbours were crouched down in basements, not knowing if their house was next.

First responders arrived and OPP officers took control of the scene, attempting to keep everyone safe and establishing a cordon around the site. The fire consumed the house, the former manse of St. James Church, which also ended up going up in flames. Firefighters from Central and South Frontenac, and as far away as Kingston, watched helplessly from behind the cordon, well into the evening.

It turned out that the man, Brian Mosher, had fled the scene. He was found the next morning, at a relative’s house, 30 kilometres away in the Hartington area.

Fancy TV cameras from the CBC, CTV, and Global, national news services, departed the scene soon after the arrest was made, but regional crews remained for another 12 hours to file their reports.

The sun beat down on the smoking rubble, the front steps and some of the facade of the church stood in front of an empty space for a couple of weeks before the entire site was cleaned up.

The site was cleaned up, leaving a nondescript field. To people travelling through Parham, as many commuters do every day, it's as if there never was a church and a manse, and that terrifying night was just a fading memory.

It's not like that for the people who were there, however, and the ongoing pandemic continues to be a factor.

Not only have the people who were there that night, and are still living through their memories, unable to meet together as a group, the firefighters and other first responders cannot talk publicly about what happened because of the ongoing court case, which has been hard to follow because of the pandemic.

“It was not something that we ever expected to happen here, that someone would want to burn down a town and that we would have to watch a church burn to the ground, without being able to even put a hose to it,” said interim Central Frontenac Fire Chief Jamie Riddell, this week, on the first anniversary of the Parham Fire.

Shortly after the fire, a Father's Day takeout dinner that had been organised by the Caremongering Sharbot Lake Facebook group and the local Lions Club, became an event to mark community resiliency and support for Parham, and social workers worked with everyone who required them for several months.

Because of the social distancing requirements that come with the pandemic, the social disruption it has caused, and the bizarre nature of the event itself, the anniversary of the Parham Fire has come and gone quietly.

But there are lingering scars, lingering pain, among the entire community. The release of the song Parham, by the Gertrudes, coming, as it did, just before the anniversary, has brought some of that pain to the surface for some people who were there that night.

Sometime soon, hopefully, there will be an opportunity for the community to come together, in a meaningful way, to support the people who are still reeling from that night last year, the scariest night of these strange times.