A disaster is an event in which there is significant damage to structures or loss of life. It is usually characterized by loss of control.
It includes all natural disasters and most man-made disasters, especially accidents.
It is usually, but not necessarily, to be co-typed with Death-causing event, Injury-causing event, Structure damaging event, and 'structure destroying event' .
Intentional disasters such as arsons, improvised explosives, and killing sprees can be modeled with this type, but more 'political' attacks are to be modeled with Military Conflict. This distinction is often difficult, though to be assessed by the legitimacy of the attacking organization.
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3,195 Disaster topics matching:
Filter this Collection| x name | x image | x Type of disaster | x Areas affected | x Total fatalities | x article |
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| x Boston molasses disaster |
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Industrial disaster | North End | 21 |
The Boston Molasses Disaster, also known as the Great Molasses Flood and the Great Boston Molasses Tragedy, occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. A large molasses storage tank...
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| x Cyclone Tracy |
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Darwin |
Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, 1974. It is the most compact cyclone or equivalent-strength hurricane on record in the Australian basin,...
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| x Kalamazoo Tornado of 1980 |
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Tornado | Kalamazoo | 5 |
The Kalamazoo Tornado of 1980 struck downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, on May 13, 1980. The tornado, which touched down at 4:09 pm, was rated F3 on the Fujita scale. The tornado killed 5 people and injured 79. Damage was estimated at $50,000,000.
The...
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| x RAF Fauld Explosion |
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The RAF Fauld explosion was a military accident which occurred at 11:11am on Monday, 27 November 1944 at the RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot. The RAF Fauld explosion was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and the...
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| x Great Fire of 1911 |
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Fire | Bangor | 2 |
The Great Fire of 1911 took place in Bangor, Maine. A small fire that started in a downtown shed went out of control and destroyed hundreds of commercial and residential buildings.
It started in the afternoon of April 30, 1911 on Broad Street. High...
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| x 1904 Toronto fire |
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Fire | Toronto | 0 |
The Great Fire of Toronto of 1904 was the second great fire that destroyed a large section of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada on April 19, 1904.
The fire was first spotted at 8:04 p.m. by a constable on his regular street patrol. The flames were...
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| x Matheson Fire |
The great Matheson Fire was a deadly forest fire that passed through region surrounding the communities of Black River-Matheson and Iroquois Falls, Ontario, Canada on July 29, 1916.
As was common practice at the time, settlers cleared land using the...
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| x Great Fire of 1922 |
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The Great Fire of 1922 was a wildfire burning through the Lesser Clay Belt in the Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, from October 4 to 5, 1922. It has been called one of the ten worst natural disasters in Canadian history.
The preceding summer...
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| x Great Fire of 1892 |
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Fire | St. John's |
The Great Fire in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 8, 1892, is remembered as the worst disaster ever to befall that city. Previous "Great Fire"s had occurred in St. John's in 1819 and 1846.
At approximately 4:45 in the afternoon on July...
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| x 1900 Hull-Ottawa fire |
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Fire |
The Hull-Ottawa fire of 1900 was a devastating fire in 1900 that destroyed much of Hull, Quebec and large portions of Ottawa, Ontario. On April 26 a defective chimney on a house in Hull caught fire, which quickly spread between the wooden houses due...
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| x Great Vancouver Fire | Fire |
The Great Vancouver Fire was a conflagration that destroyed most of the newly incorporated city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 13 June 1886. The fire began as a brush fire to clear land between present-day Main and Cambie Streets that was...
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| x Great Chicago Fire |
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Fire |
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about 3.3 square miles (9 km²) in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S....
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| x 2006 Meerut fire | Fire | 60 |
On April 10, 2006 at about 17:30 IST (12:00 UTC), a fire swept through a consumer electronics fair (Brand India Fair) in Victoria Park, Meerut, killing at least 100 people and injuring 150 others. The fire was said to have been caused by a short...
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| x Ladhowal train fire | Fire | 39 |
The Ladhowal rail disaster on 15 May 2003, was an flash fire which began at 4am on the Frontier Mail train service in India, and engulfed three carriages before it could be extinguished. 39 people lost their lives and another 15 were hospitalised...
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| x 2006 Kolkata leather factory fire | Fire |
The 2006 Kolkata leather factory fire was a deadly industrial fire that occurred in West Bengal, India, on 22 November 2006. The fire broke out in a leather bag factory located in the Tannix International, Topsia, in the South 24 Parganas district...
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| x Uphaar cinema fire | Fire | 59 |
The Uphaar Cinema fire, one of the worst fire tragedies in recent Indian history, occurred on Friday, June 13, 1997 at Uphaar Cinema, Green Park, Delhi, during the premiere screening of Border, a patriotic Hindi movie. 59 people died and 103 were...
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| x 1981 Bangalore circus fire | Fire |
The 1981 Bangalore circus fire is the fire that occurred on 8 February 1981, in a circus in Bangalore, India. 66 persons, mostly children, died and many were injured in the fire.
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| x 1995 Dabwali tent fire | Fire | Mandi Dabwali | 360 |
The Dabwali fire accident occurred on 23 December 1995 at Mandi Dabwali, a town in Haryana, India.
The incident occurred at the Rajiv Marriage Palace in Dabwali, where the local DAV Public School was holding its annual prize distribution function. A...
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| x Kuwaiti oil fires |
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Fire |
The Kuwaiti oil fires were caused by Iraqi military forces setting fire to more than 600 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy while retreating from Kuwait in 1991 after invading the country but being driven out by Coalition military forces ...
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| x Tunguska event |
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Fire |
The Tunguska event, or Tunguska blast or Tunguska explosion, was an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 7:14 a.m. KRAT (0:14 UT) on June 30 [O.S. June 17]...
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| x Kaprun disaster |
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Rail disaster | 155 |
The Kaprun disaster was a fire that occurred in an ascending railway car in the tunnel of the Gletscherbahn 2 railway in Kaprun, Austria, on 11 November 2000. The disaster claimed the lives of 155 people, leaving 12 survivors (10 Germans, 2...
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| x Halifax Explosion |
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Maritime disaster |
The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship that was fully loaded with wartime explosives. The Mont-Blanc...
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| x Peshtigo Fire |
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Fire |
The October 8, 1871 Peshtigo Fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, was a firestorm which caused the most deaths by fire in United States history, killing as many as 1,500. Occurring on the same day as the more infamous Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fire...
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| x Great Fire of Rome |
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Fire | |||
| x Summerland disaster | Fire | 50 |
The Summerland disaster occurred when a fire spread through the Summerland leisure centre in Douglas on the Isle of Man on the night of 2 August 1973. 50 people were killed and 80 seriously injured.
Summerland was opened on 25 May 1971. A climate...
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| x Burning of Parliament |
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Fire |
Burning of Parliament is the popular name for the fire which destroyed the Palace of Westminster, the home of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, on 16 October 1834. The blaze, which started from overheated chimney flues, spread rapidly throughout...
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| x Great Baltimore Fire |
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Fire |
The Great Baltimore Fire raged in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, on Sunday, February 7, and Monday, February 8, 1904. 1,231 firefighters were required to bring the blaze under control. It destroyed a major part of central Baltimore, including...
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| x Hartford Circus Fire | Fire |
The Hartford circus fire, which occurred on July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, was one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States. The fire occurred during an afternoon performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum &...
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| x Great Boston Fire of 1872 |
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Fire | 20 |
The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest urban fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on November 9, 1872, in the basement of a commercial...
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| x Ålesund Fire |
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Fire | |||
| x Bradford City stadium fire |
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Fire |
The Bradford City stadium fire occurred on Saturday 11 May 1985 when a flash fire consumed one side of the Valley Parade football stadium in Bradford, England.
The fire broke out during a football match between Bradford City (the home team) and...
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| x Great Seattle fire |
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Fire |
The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington, USA, on June 6, 1889.
In the fall of 1851, the Denny Party arrived at Alki Point in what is now the state of Washington. After spending a...
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| x Summit tunnel fire |
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Industrial disaster |
The Summit Tunnel fire occurred on 20 December 1984 on a dangerous goods train passing through the Summit Tunnel on the Greater Manchester/West Yorkshire border, on the rail line between Littleborough and Todmorden, England.
The tunnel, which is 1.6...
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| x 1996 Channel Tunnel fire | Fire |
The Channel Tunnel fire of 18 November 1996 occurred on a train carrying heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and their drivers through the Channel Tunnel from France to Great Britain.
The fire began after the train had loaded and was travelling through the...
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| x Daegu subway fire |
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Fire | 198 |
The Daegu subway fire was a mass murder-suicide on February 18, 2003 which killed at least 198 people and injured at least 147. An arsonist set fire to a train stopped at the Jungangno Station of the Daegu Metropolitan Subway in Daegu, South Korea....
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| x Salang tunnel fire | Fire |
The Salang tunnel fire occurred on 3 November 1982 in Afghanistan's Salang tunnel during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Details are uncertain, but the incident may have been the deadliest known road accident, and one of the deadliest fires of...
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| x Taunton train fire |
The Taunton sleeping car fire occurred in a sleeping car train at Taunton, England in the early hours of 6 July 1978. It killed 12 people, injured 15 people and had far-reaching effects for British Rail. The cause was an electric heater obstructed...
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| x Burning of Washington |
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Fire |
The Burning of Washington in 1814 was an armed conflict during the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States of America. On August 24, 1814, after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg,...
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| x República Cromagnon nightclub fire |
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The República Cromañón nightclub fire occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 30 December 2004, and killed 194 people. The tragedy symbolic of government failure in Argentina since the club had received a permit despite lacking basic fire safety...
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| x Caldecott Tunnel fire | Fire |
The Caldecott Tunnel fire killed seven people in the north tube of the Caldecott Tunnel, on State Route 24 between Oakland and Orinda in the US state of California just after midnight on 7 April 1982. It is one of the few major tunnel fires...
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| x Windscale fire |
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Fire |
The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in Great Britain's history, ranked in severity at level 5 on the 7-point International Nuclear Event Scale. The two piles had been hurriedly built as part of the British atomic...
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| x 1996 Garley building fire |
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Fire | |||
| x Paris Metro train fire |
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The disastrous Paris Métro train fire occurred on the evening of August 10, 1903, on what was then Line 2 Nord (2 North) of the system and is now Line 2. There were 84 deaths, most at Couronnes station, so it is also known as the Couronnes disaster....
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| x Holland Tunnel fire | Fire |
The Holland Tunnel fire occurred on the morning of Friday, May 13, 1949, in a hazardous materials truck passing through the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey. The 1996 motion picture Daylight starring Sylvester...
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| x Joelma Fire | Fire |
The Joelma fire occurred on Friday February 1, 1974, in the Joelma building, a 25 story building situated in downtown São Paulo, at 225 Avenue Nine of July. It is one of the most notable tragedies to have occurred in Brazil.
A short-circuit in a...
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| x Stardust Disaster |
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The Stardust fire was a fatal fire which took place at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin, Ireland in the early hours of 14 February 1981. Some 841 people had attended a disco there, of whom 48 died and 214 were injured as a result of the fire...
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| x Bukit Ho Swee Fire |
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Fire |
The Bukit Ho Swee Fire (Chinese: 河水山大火) is a fire that broke out in the squatter settlement of Bukit Ho Swee, Singapore, on May 25, 1961 at 3.20 p.m. Four people died, eighty-five were injured, and 16,000 were made homeless and more than 2,200 attap...
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| x Great Salem Fire of 1914 |
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Fire |
The Great Salem Fire of June 25, 1914, destroyed 1,376 buildings in Salem, Massachusetts.
Franklin H. Wentworth agitated for more fire protection. In an article in the Salem Evening News (March 29, 1910, page 7), he called "Salem in Danger of...
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| x Brescia Furniture Fire | Fire |
The Brescia Furniture Fire was a blaze that started on 11 March 2005, at the Brescia Furniture factory in Ashfield, New South Wales, an inner suburb of Sydney. It took 150 fire crews, from 30 different stations, to control the fire. Two people were...
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| x 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster | Fire |
The 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster (also known as the Mount Lyell Disaster and North Mount Lyell Fire) refers to a fire that broke out on 12 October 1912 at the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company operations on the West Coast of Tasmania. The...
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| Mining accident | |||||
| x Windsor Castle fire, 1992 | Fire |
The 1992 Windsor Castle fire occurred on Friday, 20 November 1992 in Windsor Castle, to the west of London, England the largest inhabited castle in the world and one of the official residences of the British monarch, Elizabeth II. The castle...
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| x Great Fire of 1901 |
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Fire |
The Great Fire of 1901 was a conflagration in Jacksonville, Florida on May 3, 1901. It was one of the worst disasters in Florida history and the largest urban fire in the Southeastern United States.
About noon on Friday, May 3, 1901, in the LaVilla...
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| x Great Fire of New York |
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Fire |
The Great New York Fire was a conflagration that destroyed the New York Stock Exchange and most of the buildings on the southeast tip of Manhattan around Wall Street on December 16–17, 1835.
The fire began in the evening in a five-story warehouse at...
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| x St. Louis Fire |
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Fire |
The St. Louis Fire of 1849 was a devastating fire that occurred on May 17, 1849 and destroyed a significant part of St. Louis, Missouri and many of the steamboats using the Mississippi River and Missouri River. This was the first fire in United...
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| x 2005 Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal fire |
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| x Offset Alpine fire | Fire |
The Offset Alpine fire was a 1993 fire that destroyed a Sydney printing plant owned by the company Offset Alpine Printing Ltd. Investigations of the incident by the police and by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission spanned over ten...
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| x Copenhagen Fire of 1728 |
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Fire |
The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 was the largest fire in the history of Copenhagen, Denmark. It began on the evening of October 20, 1728, and continued to burn until the morning of October 23. It destroyed approximately 28% of the city (measured by...
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| x Great Atlanta fire of 1917 |
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Fire |
The Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 began just after noon on Monday, May 21 and was finally extinguished by 10 PM. Destroyed were 300 acres (much of the Fourth Ward), including nearly 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, and 10,000 people were displaced...
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| x Whiskey Au Go Go fire | Fire | 15 |
The Whiskey Au Go Go fire was a fire that occurred at 2.10 am on Thursday 8 March 1973, in the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia that killed 15 people. The building is on the corner of Amelia Street and St Paul's...
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| x Copenhagen Fire of 1795 | Fire |
The Copenhagen Fire of 1795 started Friday the June 5, around 3 p.m. at the Navy’s old base at Gammelholm in the fleets warehouse for coal and barrels. The fire spread, crossing over Holmens Canal to the quarter around Saint Nicholas Church and...
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