The remains of the former Jackson Bros. fish plant and store in Wilson's Beach, Campobello, went up in flames on Sunday night, October 3, in a dramatic fire that could be seen from around the bay.
     The call came in about 9:40 p.m. (AT), with the old fish plant soon fully engulfed in flames. Fortunately, it was a calm night, as some houses were near the abandoned building. Campobello Mayor Harvey Matthews, who is also on the fire department, says, "It's a shame it burnt." But he points out, "If the wind had been a different way, we could have had houses lost. For a big fire, it wouldn't take much to start skipping across them." Matthews adds, "It's the most amount of fire I've seen at once. With it being close to the public wharf, it was fortunate we got there when we did. It could have been a lot worse."
     Two tanker trucks from the Lubec Fire Department and one from the Whiting Fire Department assisted the Campobello Fire Department by making half a dozen trips nearly the length of the island to haul water from Lubec to the scene, since there are no fire hydrants on the island. The Campobello department does have access to about 10,000 gallons of water at two large tanks at the fire hall and used its tanker truck to haul the water and its two pumpers to fight the fire. "There was a lot of water," says Matthews. "I was surprised the tide wasn't higher the next morning."
     In addition, U.S. Coast Guard Station Eastport's 47-foot vessel was out on night training and provided a pump to the Campobello firefighters so they could pump seawater onto the blaze as the tanker trucks were being filled. The Coast Guard no longer has fire hoses or deck guns on its vessels.
     The dilapidated building was completely destroyed by the fire. The Lubec and Whiting fire departments were able to return home about 2 a.m., and Campobello firefighters headed back around 3 a.m. Matthews comments that the aid was well appreciated. "I can't express enough about the help from the other communities. It was above and beyond, for a situation that could have been very bad."
     The cause of the fire has not been determined, although there was no electricity to the building. An RCMP officer was on the scene, Matthews notes, and any investigation would be done by the provincial Office of the Fire Marshal.

A landmark becomes an eyesore
     What had once been a bustling business and a landmark at Wilson's Beach had become a falling down eyesore over the years, with parts of the Jackson Bros. building spilling onto the beach. Efforts have been made at different times either to start a new business or to clean up the derelict building.
     Campobello Fisheries Ltd. had bought the property in 1988 but failed within a year and ended up suing Jackson Bros. because of the lack of marketable title. That suit was dismissed in court, and the property returned to the Jackson family in 1997.
     The building has then been vacant since 1990. Along with the large building and pier, there were three gasoline tanks and one diesel tank underground and one heating oil tank above ground. A portion of the pier then collapsed in 2003 and another part fell in June 2004. The New Brunswick Department of Environment had issued an order to the owners for its removal in 2006 and also had indicated it would undertake the removal if the owners didn't. The department stated at the time that the cost rests with the property owners. The owners, Keith Jackson, Donald Jackson Sr., who have now both passed away, and their sister Margie Newman, had been trying to sell the property, and efforts to clean up the property over the years have failed.
     In July 2018 the Campobello rural community council had discussed the possibility of the council acquiring the land and cleaning it up. The cost for disposal of the debris was estimated to be between $100,000 and $350,000, depending on whether it could be disposed of on the island, and there would be additional ongoing costs for monitoring water quality. The council had not enacted an Unsightly Building Act, so its options for any enforcement action were limited.
     It's not yet clear what will happen to the property following the fire. Matthews surmises that the debris will have to be trucked to a certified landfill, but he doesn't know how the cost will be covered.

A long history
     The origins of the business go back over 150 years, when the H. Jackson Estate was started on the island by Howard Jackson, the grandfather of Donald and Keith Jackson and Margie Newman. Howard Jackson had smokehouses both at Head Harbour and Wilson's Beach. During the period from the 1930s into the 1950s H. Jackson Estate had its own 70-foot freighter, the Annie M. Kenney, which would make a trip a week to Saint John, bringing general freight, groceries, barrels of oil and coal. The business was the Imperial Oil agent on the island for a long time and also provided gas and ice for boats.
     Jackson Bros. Ltd. was incorporated in 1961. The business carried groceries, paint, hardware and fishing supplies and fresh, salted and dried fish. The business wholesaled and retailed groundfish and used to smoke herring and salt pollock.
     "We always delivered groceries and always delivered oil. You name it, we did it," Donald Jackson Sr. stated in a 1988 interview with The Quoddy Tides. "We always dried fish, too. We sold to the West Indies and sold dried fish to New York, too. Ever since it's been there we've handled fish."
     He remembered, "Handliners, trawlers, draggers came in day and night. When the fish hit - six or seven or eight months - we were going day and night, seven days a week. You could put all the hours in that you wanted."