Firebreaks were plowed around the town and each farmstead because settlers were ever alert to prairie fires.  In 1893 it wasn't a prairie fire but a common daily task that started a fire in town. It began with filling a kerosene lamp from a tin measure. Fate and the wind were against Canby that night. After the flames had demolished every Main street store between the Swenson building and the bank, the wind switched and blew the heat and sparks across Main street to Block 3 where every structure went except for one.