Canadian Parliament Burns

The Canadian Houses of Parliament (Centre Block), pictured at 12:30 AM on February 4th.  The tower would collapse only minutes later.  The CBC also has other excellent pictures of the fire and its aftermath.

February 3 1916, Ottawa–At 8:37 PM tonight, the fire alarm went off near the Reading Room of the Canadian Houses of Parliament.  The fire soon spread beyond the the ability to quickly control it, and quickly engulfed the side containing the House of Commons.  Seven people were killed in the blaze, including two ladies who were trying to retrieve their checked fur coats, several policemen who were trying to organize the evacuation, and one MP from Nova Scotia.  Many others were burned or suffered the effects of smoke inhalation.  Shortly after 12:30, the main clock tower collapsed; its main bell had continued to ring properly until the twelfth stroke of midnight.  By the early morning, firefighting crews believed they had the blaze under control and thought they would be able to save the Senate side of the building; however, this too was lost by the end of the day on February 4th, leaving only the library at the rear of the building relatively undamaged.  Given the state of war, many jumped to the conclusion that German agents were responsible for the fire–given credence by a report in a Providence, RI newspaper a few weeks before that the Germans were planning to attack Ottawa.  There remains no firm evidence today, however, that proves that Germany was responsible for the fire.

Sources include: The New York Times.

I believe the official consensus was “poor wiring.” There never was any firm evidence of German Saboteurs.