Originally built in 1916, the construction of a fire wall along Main Street in Ogema was refused funding from higher levels of government since it wasn’t expected to last more than five years. The town found the funding themselves, and went ahead and built it after a fire had ravaged through one side of the street the year before.

When the wall turned 100, it was refurbished, and many thought it would keep standing for a number of years more. The windstorm this week, however, had different ideas.

“We think what has happened is it kind of did a ripple, wave effect, and got it moving and the whole wall toppled down,” explained Carol Peterson, the mayor of Ogema. “Not just the top portion or a little side portion – the entire wall.”

The wall fell to the south, and into a vacant lot. Peterson stated there was no damage to the town office, which is the building directly to the north of the fire wall.

The wall itself was rather unique in Saskatchewan. Only four similar walls were constructed in the province, all of them in the south. A wall was built in Radville, but it had been previously taken down. There is a fire wall like the one in Ogema between two buildings in Mossbank, and another fire wall was built in Shaunavon.

The one in Ogema had been recognized as a heritage site, and there was a plaque attached to the wall from the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society. It was one of many such sites in the town, which has been recognized provincially, nationally and internationally for its heritage sites.

The fire wall in Ogema also had some rather distinguished connections to Canadian heritage and history.

“R. J. Lecky was one of the architects on it,” explained Peterson. The R.J. Lecky Company was the construction superintendent of the construction of the Legislature in Regina, was behind the construction of a number of buildings throughout the province.

With the collapse of the wall, there has already been talk of whether to not or rebuild it. Peterson pointed out the cost of the refurbishment back in 2016 was $18,000, and the cost to rebuild the wall is not something the town itself could afford. That said, she wouldn’t rule out a rebuild if there was a fundraiser for the reconstruction of the wall.