B.C. Fire Insurance Plans

Created by the Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian, this guide provides information about the fire insurance plans available in Rare Books and Special Collections at UBC Library. You will find information about characteristics of fire insurance plans, as well as how to search for and access fire insurance plans in the collection.

Because fire insurance plans are so detailed, the plan for a larger city, such as Vancouver, can span a number of volumes. This guide is intended to help users in locating the volume numbers associated with specific areas within the multiple volume plans covering larger cities and towns. For each municipality in this guide, the street boundaries are given at the top of the page. Below this, brief descriptions of each "edition" are listed in date order, including the proper title, scales, number of sheets, and call number. All of the plans listed are available to consult at Rare Books and Special Collections at UBC Library.

If you aren't sure of the street boundaries for your address or area, you may be able to locate them by looking up the address on Google Maps or using the map below.

Please note that this guide only covers some the largest B.C. municipalities and / or our most requested plans. In order to find fire insurance plans for other B.C. towns, see Finding Fire Insurance Plans below for tips on searching the Library catalogue. The Edward Phelps Canadian fire insurance plan collection contains plans for municipalities outside of B.C.

Due to the copyright restrictions on fire insurance plans, we are not able to digitize or distribute fire insurance plans without the permission of the copyright holder. If you would like to be in touch with the copyright holder about receiving digital copies, feel free to contact Rare Books and Special Collections for their information. If you would like to consult any of the maps in-person, feel free to be in touch to schedule a visit to the reading room.

At the Library home page, select "Books & Media," then "Advanced Search"

Use the "Guided Keyword Search" tab. Use the place name as the first keyword and "insurance" as the second keyword. Choose "Rare Books and Special Collections" under the "Location" dropdown menu and choose "Map" under the "Type" dropdown menu.

Narrow your search using a range of dates or sort by "publication date" (oldest to newest) on the results page

Note the call number of the map you would like to consult when contacting RBSC to schedule a reading room visit.

Fire insurance plans are detailed large-scale maps of cities, smaller municipalities, and industrial sites. The object of these maps is to show the character of any insured building. These plans were compiled by the fire insurance underwriters to assist their agents in assessing and controlling the risks of fire. Various symbols and colours are used to indicate the following characteristics: the shape and size of a building; the type of construction used; the existence of fire protection facilities; and the use of the building (e.g., a restaurant, a laundry, etc.). The plans were first drawn using a scale of 50 feet to the inch (relative scale 1:600). Later, this scale was increased to 100 feet to the inch (1:1 200), especially in residential areas, and finally 200 feet to the inch (1:2 400).

The earliest insurance plans are believed to have been made in the early 18th century, and were hand drawn for a particular fire insurance company. The earliest extant plan is a Map of London compiled by Richard Horwood for the Phoenix Assurance Company between 1792 and 1799. This is the same company, which produced the first insurance plans of Canadian cities in 1808. The American fire insurance plan industry began in 1850. The Sanborn Map and Publishing Company became the predominant fire insurance cartography company in North America. The name Sanborn is synonymous with fire insurance plans in the United States.

The earliest Canadian plan extant is the "Boulton Atlas" of Toronto, Ontario, circa 1858. In 1874-75, Sanborn mapped fifteen Canadian cities in Ontario and Quebec at the request of some Canadian insurance companies. In 1885, Sanborn mapped five British Columbia municipalities, including Victoria, and Granville. Granville was the proper name for "Gastown", which became Vancouver. The San Francisco firm of Dakin published a plan of Vancouver in 1889.

In 1875 Charles Edward Goad mapped Levis, Quebec, and later bought Sanborn's Canadian stock. In 1897, the Goad company began producing plans for British Columbia municipalities, along with various underwriters associations in the province. In 1917, Goad sold out to the Canadian and provincial underwriters associations. The associations amalgamated to form the Canadian Underwriters' Association in 1960 and subsequent production of fire insurance plans was centralised under the Plan Division of the Association. In 1974, the Association became the Insurers' Advisory Organisation. The following year, in 1975, production of fire insurance plans ceased.

Plans were revised periodically as buildings were burned, torn down, rebuilt, or a new area was developed. The revisions were printed and distributed to the agents to paste in. Sometimes revisions were made in pencil or crayon by the agent, or by the cartographers in the Plan Department. Plans with the same date may have different revisions. There are no plans for undeveloped areas, nor for a few areas which were developed.