Everyone has heard of the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki – but not many people know the story of the third largest explosion in inhabited territory in history. In honor of the 106th anniversary of one of the deadliest events in human history, we turned to Forefront and Perplexity to gather details of the catastrophe.
The disaster occurred at a port in Halifax, Scotia, Canada, after which it was also named the Halifax Explosion. Just before 9 a.m., the French ammunition ship SS Mont-Blanc, carrying more than 2,000 tons of explosives and combustible materials, left the port and carried no sign of it or a guard boat, fearing that it would make it a target for the German Navy (recall: 1917 is at the height of World War I). The Norwegian ship SS Imo, which had been supposed to enter the port a short time earlier but was delayed, and Cabranta decided to try to fill the gap by speeding, cutting the course of Mont Blanc.
360-degree reconstruction of the disaster:
The collision caused barrels of Benzol to catch fire on board, and a fire that raged for about 20 minutes, with the crew desperately trying to extinguish it – but they eventually lost and caused the explosives on board to explode. This explosion was so enormous that it is estimated to be 2.9 kilotons of TNT – about one-fifth of the power of the atomic bomb dropped 28 years later on Hiroshima and about one-seventh of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki (13-18 and 21 kilotons, respectively).
The powerful explosion devastated the entire Richmond district of Halifax, with all buildings within 800 metres of the harbour completely wiped out. It even triggered an 18-meter-high tsunami wave, which increased the level of destruction. Windows 70 kilometers away shattered, and it was felt as far as Prince Edward Island, about 180 kilometers away – a distance equivalent to that between Khan Yunis and Kiryat Haim, or slightly less than the distance between Be'er Sheva and Eilat.
As a result of the disaster, some 1,950 people were killed and more than 9,000 injured, leaving 6,000 homeless. Property damage was estimated at C$35 million, which is C$700 million ($516 million, or $1.9 billion) today. Huge relief efforts were needed to rehabilitate the area and its residents. To date, it is the largest unplanned explosion ever caused by man (i.e., other than volcanic eruptions) and the strongest explosion in history until the era of nuclear bombs. It is also the fourth largest maritime disaster in terms of the number of victims.
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