Fascinating Horror

On the 28th of November, 1942, a hanging decoration in one room of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts caught fire. The flames were, initially, quite trivial – some of the patrons who witnessed them were even amused by the efforts of waiting staff to extinguish them using glasses of water and seltzer bottles. They could not possibly have known, at that moment, that this tiny flame would within minutes grow into one of the deadliest nightclub fires in American history.

On the 9th of June 1991, at the Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio, a normal summer evening took a surreal turn when two fatal freak accidents occurred almost simultaneously. The day would come to be known by fans of the park as “Black Sunday” – a day when three guests lost their lives in two completely separate – and, initially at least, completely inexplicable – incidents.

On the 29th of April, 1972, Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio, opened for business. The 364-acre amusement park included a $2 million dark ride, a record-breaking rollercoaster, and numerous other entertainments and attractions. It was a hit. Within just a few years the park saw visitor numbers in the millions, and was known not just across the state, but nationwide. Little spoken of, however, were several bizarre freak accidents that took place within the park in subsequent years, and which cost several staff and guests their lives.

On the morning of the 7th of November, 1940, travellers on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the state of Washington noticed something strange. The roadway suspended between the bridge’s concrete pillars was oscillating and twisting – gently at first, and then more and more dramatically. Soon enough almost the entire central span of the bridge was in motion, rippling wildly. At around 11am, whatever force was causing this movement proved too powerful, and the bridge collapsed into the water below. What exactly had happened was, at that stage, a mystery to almost everyone.

On the 11th of November, 2000, a fire began on board a train carrying passengers up to a ski resort in Kaprun, Austria. Automated safety systems brought the train to a halt in a tunnel midway to its destination – while almost at the same moment the flames destroyed the hydraulic system which controlled the doors. The 162 passengers on board were now trapped twice over – locked inside a burning train that was, itself, stalled inside a smoke-filled tunnel. Despite valiant efforts on the part of many on board, the vast majority of passengers would not survive.

On the 11th of May, 1984, a fire began inside the Haunted Castle attraction at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. The flames spread quickly, feeding off flammable building materials and decorations. There were around 30 guests inside the attraction when the flames took hold… almost a third of whom would not make it out alive.

On the 26th of February 1919, The Grand Canyon in Arizona officially became the 15th National Park of the United States of America. The canyon – actually a gorge of the Colorado River – and the many tributary canyons which surround are mostly comprised of extremely rugged and sheer terrain, although areas along the North and South Rim have been maintained and cultivated for the purposes of tourism. Dangers abound within the canyon itself… but even from well-maintained tourist areas on the rim, it is surprisingly common for people to fall to their death – often in ways that completely defy belief.

On the 6th of December 1917 two ships collided in the mouth of Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. The collision sparked a fire on board one of the vessels… a repurposed tramp steamer packed with a cargo of explosives bound for the European theatre of war. At exactly 35 seconds after 9:04am this cargo detonated, bringing about one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever to take place.

On the 28th of November, 2008, crowds began to gather outside the Walmart at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York...

On the 5th of July, 2009, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, two ride trains collided, resulting in the death of one staff member. This fatal crash, however, did not take place on a rollercoaster or other thrill ride, but instead on the resort’s monorail system, designed to transport guests around and between the parks.

On the 5th of September, 2020, at around 10:20am, an extended family group gathered on the edge of the El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, California. They were there for a gender reveal party – a celebration intended to reveal the gender of an as-yet-unborn child in a surprising and dramatic fashion. Unfortunately, the exact mechanism this family chose for their big reveal would soon result in a devastating and fatal wildfire, which would go on to ravage the area for months to come. It would be just the latest in a string of devastating incidents resulting from failed gender reveal parties.

On the 31st of August, 1888, in the heart of London’s Whitechapel, the serial killer who would come to be known as Jack The Ripper claimed his first victim, beginning a four-month reign of terror. Jack’s spree of grisly killings would prompt an unprecedented police investigation, a worldwide media frenzy, and a legacy of speculation that would last for centuries. Though the Ripper was never apprehended, he remains entrenched in the public consciousness to this day.

On the 3rd of December, 1979, English rock band The Who were scheduled to play a concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thousands of general admission ticketholders gathered outside the venue hours before the scheduled start of the concert… but were kept waiting outside by organisers while final arrangements were made for the night’s performance. When the go ahead was finally given to let the waiting crowd inside, only two doors were opened. Two doors for more than 8,000 people. By the time The Who actually did take to the stage that evening 11 of their fans would be dead.

On the night of the 28th of August, 1859, skies around the world lit up with spectacular displays of light. In some places the heavens glowed red, as though reflecting a massive wildfire. Elsewhere broad bands of white light were seen dancing across the night sky. For almost a week skies around the world glowed so brightly that it was possible to read a newspaper at midnight. Everywhere, people gathered and gazed upwards, terrified and awestruck in equal measure. The vast majority had no idea what they were witnessing, and could only assume that it was a portent of the end of the world.

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone. If you haven't seen the movie Jaws yet... well, I'd highly recommend it. Especially if you enjoy this video!

On the 25th of May, 1950, at around 6:30pm, a crowded tram was making its way through the streets of Chicago. As it approached a switch in the track, the driver missed the frantic signals of a worker on the street, and ploughed through the track switch at high speed. Immediately, the tram collided with a fully-loaded tanker truck hauling gasoline. Fuel spilled out and ignited in a giant fireball, beginning one of the most deadly public transit disasters in Chicago’s history.

On the 13th of November, 1965, the SS Yarmouth Castle – an American passenger steamship – was sailing from Miami to Nassau when a fire broke out on board. On another ship, this might have been a minor incident, but due to the condition of the Yarmouth Castle, and the actions of those on board, the fire spread until it endangered the entire ship. Six hours after the fire began, the vessel sank with the loss of 87 lives. It was the worst disaster in North American waters in 15 years, and it was, it emerged, entirely preventable.

On the 23rd of March, 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593 was en route from Moscow to Hong Kong with 75 people on board. Before if could reach its destination, the aircraft appeared to malfunction, launching into a series of steep climbs and dives – the final one of which took the plane to an altitude so low that no recovery was possible. The Airbus A310 crashed into the ground, with the loss of every single person on board. A subsequent investigation would reveal that the crash was due entirely to a sequence of bad decisions, misunderstandings, and errors by the pilots of Flight 593.

On the 10th of October, 1957, a fire broke out at the Windscale nuclear facility on the west coast of England. The flames sent vast quantities of radioactive material billowing up into the atmosphere. It was, and remains, the United Kingdom’s most serious nuclear accident… but at the time no residents from the surrounding area were evacuated, and most of the details of the fire were swiftly hushed up. It would be years before the true extent of the damage caused by the Windscale fire was revealed.

On the 30th of December, 1903, a fire began on the stage at the newly-built Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois. Advertisements for the theatre had boasted that it was “absolutely fireproof”… but it was far from it. Indeed, the design of the theatre building lead to a death toll that outstripped that of any single building fire in all of American history, and lead to changes to the design of mass-occupancy buildings that are still in place today.

On the 15th of September, 2011, near Sao Paulo in Brazil one of the largest ever traffic accidents in history took place. In heavy fog, several vehicles collided, beginning a chain reaction that ultimately consumed around 300 cars and trucks. The incident left one person dead, and many more injured. While notable for its sheer scale, this pileup is just one of many such multi-vehicle collisions… many of which have, at their root, the same basic cause.

On the 2nd of August, 1973, three boys were playing on the miniature golf course outside the Summerland Leisure Centre on the Isle of Man. They ducked into an empty ticket booth so that they could share a cigarette. The oldest boy in the group was just 14. Their only worry at the time was being caught smoking... but they would soon have bigger concerns. A dropped match started a fire, which grew rapidly out of control. Panicking, the three boys fled. They would live to see another day, but dozens of people who were inside Summerland when the fire began would not.

On the 4th of February, 1912, at the Niagara Falls on the border between America and Canada, three innocent people were swept to their deaths in the raging waters. The three were tourists, who had been enjoying the then perfectly-ordinary practise of walking across the base of the falls on a bridge of ice that sometimes formed there in winter.

On the 6th of July, 1944, the circus came to Hartford, Connecticut. Excited residents crowded into the big top to watch a performance unrivalled in that day and age: trained lions and tigers, daredevil stunts, a menagerie of exotic creatures, and a series of acrobatic marvels. Around 7,000 people filed into the huge canvas enclosure to enjoy the show… but before the afternoon’s entertainment could draw to a close, one of the worst temporary building fires in US history would claim the lives of nearly 170 of the audience and performers.

On the 24th of September, 1972, the Golden West Sport Aviation Air Show was in full swing at Sacramento Executive Airport in Sacramento, California. Thousands of aviation enthusiasts had gathered to see aircraft – including military and experimental models – exhibited on the ground. The show came to an abrupt halt, however, when one aircraft leaving the show failed to take off at the end of the runway, and instead ploughed through a fence, across a road, and directly into a crowded ice cream parlour.

On the 23rd of June, 2012, in the city of Elliot Lake in Ontario, Canada, a segment of the rooftop parking deck at the Algo Centre Mall collapsed, smashing down through two floors of the shopping center. The incident, which claimed the lives of two people and injured 22 more, lasted just a few short moments… but was the result of a slow, quiet, corrosive process that had been going on for decades.

On the 1st of March, 1872, Yellowstone became the first National Park in the United States of America – an area of wilderness protected by the state for the preservation of wildlife, and for the enjoyment of all. They could hardly have picked a better place – Yellowstone was and (thanks to its protected status) remains a breathtakingly beautiful, alien landscape of unique geological features and thermal springs. These thermal springs in particular, like any wild and untamed thing, can be deadly – something which the park has wrestled with for its entire existence.

On the 9th of November, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald left Wisconsin and set off across Lake Superior laden with a cargo of iron ore pellets. It was a journey the cargo freighter had made many times before, but this particular sailing would be different. The Edmund Fitzgerald would never make it to its planned destination of Zug Island near Detroit, and neither would any of the 29 crewmembers on board.

On the 22nd of June, 1918, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus was on its way to its next scheduled performance in Hammond, Indiana. More than 300 labourers and circus performers were on board one of the circus’s two dedicated trains when it was forced to stop to deal with a mechanical issue. The vast majority of passengers were asleep, unaware entirely that another train was bearing down on them at full speed, and that in just a few minutes the Hagenback-Wallace Circus would suffer one of the worst tragedies it would ever endure.

On the 13th of May, 2000, residents in the Dutch city of Enschede noticed smoke in the sky. A small industrial complex in the northern part of the city was on fire. Fire engines made their way towards the blaze, while people watched from a safe distance, fully expecting to see it brought under control within a few hours. Instead, at around 3:30pm, a massive explosion shook the entire city, obliterating an entire neighbourhood in a matter of moments.

On the 7th of April, 1990, the MS Scandinavian Star – a passenger and vehicle ferry – was on its way from Oslo in Norway to Frederikshavn in Denmark, when a fire began on board. At the time, the ship carried 395 passengers and 97 crew. Approximately one third of the people on board would not live to see the morning… an extremely high death toll which, it was found, could be attributed in large part to the dilapidated and ill-maintained state of the ship.

On the 7th of December, 1941, at the height of World War II, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United State of America, which had until then been a neutral country. At 7:55am, the first of two waves of Japanese aircraft were launched from carriers off the shores of Hawaii. From a clear blue sky, they honed in on Pearl Harbour - a naval base on the island of O’ahu - and decimated it and the ships which were moored there. The attack, which was launched without warning, has gone down as a pivotal moment in the history of the world – an atrocity that caused America to finally enter, and ultimately help put an end to, the war.

On the 15th of May, 1929, hundreds of doctors, nurses and patients were going about their business inside the outpatient building of the Cleveland Clinic – a modern and in some ways revolutionary healthcare centre in Cleveland, Ohio. At around 11:30am the upper floors of the clinic were suddenly flooded with a thick, yellowish-brown gas. Those who inhaled it were dead within moments, never knowing or understanding exactly what had killed them.

On the 20th of April, 1902, after years of hard work, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolated a brand new element: radium. It was thought, at the time, that this new material might have all kinds of beneficial properties, and so radium was swiftly incorporated into a huge range of products: everything from makeup to ceramics to health tonics and jewellery. What wasn’t understood at that time was that radium was in fact quite deadly.

On the 19th of November, 1971, a group of high school students from Ainslie Park School in Edinburgh set off for a weekend adventure in the Cairngorms – a rugged mountain range to the north of the city. As bad weather settled in over the highlands, what started out as a weekend hike would soon turn into a life and death battle for survival from which six of the group would never return.

On the 21st of November, 2013, the roof of the Zolitūde Shopping Center in Riga, Latvia, collapsed without warning, trapping almost a hundred staff and customers within. The disaster – which was the worst to take place in Latvia in almost 60 years – would change the country forever, with consequences that reached all the way up to the highest ranks of government.

On the 27th of March, 1977, one of the worst disasters in aviation history took place at Los Rodeos airport in Tenerife. The collision of two fully-loaded Boeing 747 airplanes on a runway was an unprecedented and horrifying incident – an incident which, ultimately, was traced back to just a few momentary misunderstandings and communication failures.

On the 22nd of April, 1992 a series of huge explosions ripped through the Mexican city of Guadalajara, opening up a trench almost eight kilometres (or five miles) in length. The destruction was absolute – hundreds were killed, thousands injured, and vast tracts of the city damaged beyond recognition. As shocked survivors began digging through the rubble, the question remained: what could possibly have caused this kind of devastation on such an enormous scale?

On the 21st of November, 1980, a fire began on the first floor of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Firefighters were quickly in attendance, and through a co-ordinated effort were able to contain and then extinguish the flames before they could spread to rooms where guests were sleeping. Only a relatively small part of the hotel actually burned… but a flaw in the design of the building meant that 85 guests – many of whom were staying on floors completely untouched by flame – lost their lives.

On the 24th of July, 1915, the SS Eastland – a passenger steamer – capsized in the Chicago River. Conditions at the time were perfectly calm, the water placid. There was no fire, no impact from another ship, no explosion. There was barely even any wind. In fact, the ship was still tied up to the dock. Help was on hand almost instantly. The water was relatively shallow, and the boat didn’t even fully sink. Yet despite all this, the Eastland disaster would turn into one of the deadliest in Chicago’s history.

On the 5th of December, 1952, an unusually heavy fog descended on London. It remained in place for five days, bringing the capital to a standstill… and yet it caused no panic. Fog was a common phenomenon within London and, dramatic as this fog was, it was thought of as just another example of typically British weather. It wouldn’t be until much later that the true cost of the Great Smog of 1952 was realised.

On the 5th of October, 1930, a passenger airship crashed to the ground and burst into flame, killing almost everyone on board. It wasn’t the Hindenburg. Instead, this was the R101 – an experimental British airship on its first overseas voyage. The conception, creation and testing of the R101 had been a fraught process… and its tragic end would be the death knell of the British airship industry.

On the 24th of December, 1913, in the town of Calumet in Michigan employees of a copper mining company were enjoying a Christmas party at a community hall. At some point in proceedings a loud cry was heard: “Fire!” The crowd rushed to escape down a single narrow staircase… but there simply wasn’t room for everyone to evacuate at once. In the panic and confusion which followed, many of those in attendance would lose their lives.

On the 13th of November 1986, BBC employees were rehearsing a stunt for an upcoming episode of The Late Late Breakfast Show...

On the 7th of November, 1916, the streets of Boston were crowded with people. The results of the 33rd United States presidential election were due to be announced...

On the 27th of May, 1962, a small team of workers were tasked with clearing up a landfill site just outside of Centralia, Pennsylvania...

On the 14th of May, 1988, a group from the Radcliff First Assembly of God Church spent the day at the Kings Island Amusement Park in Ohio...

On the 27th of April, 1865, the Sultana – a wooden steamboat – was making its way north up the Mississippi River when, one after another, its boilers exploded...

On the 25th of September, 1978, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 was getting ready to land at San Diego International Airport...

On the 24th of December, 1953, a passenger express train was making its way across New Zealand from Wellington to Auckland...

On the 31st of August, 1994, police were called to a quiet suburb outside of Detroit, where a 17-year-old boy was suspected of stealing tyres...

On the 24th of July, 1976, a convention held by the American Legion at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia came to an end...

Once a year, around the holidays, I want to share the story of a disaster that *didn't* happen - a tragedy that, whether through luck, the bravery of those involved, or simple good planning, was averted. In this story, everyone survives... although it's definitely a close call.