The crash involving the S.S. Stonington and the S.S. Narragansett resulted in the death of dozens, massive destruction, and a media frenzy.
ReadOn March 31, 1923, a 56,000-gallon water tank dropped through 4 concrete floors of the Fuller Brush Company Tower.
ReadOn March 27, 1877, the Staffordville Reservoir Company’s dam burst, flooding the valley for a distance of five miles and causing the loss of two lives.
ReadOn January 18, 1978, at about 4:20 in the morning, the Hartford Civic Center roof collapsed.
ReadOn January 13, 1840, over 150 people perished on Long Island Sound when the steamboat Lexington caught fire.
ReadIn 1891, Thompson, Connecticut, was the site of one of the most horrific railway accidents in American history.
ReadFrom neighbors rushing to help neighbors and the town’s first fire department, which opened in 1879, to the present day, the volunteer tradition of firefighting continues despite many changes over the decades.
ReadTogether the combination of chance and human error produced the most destructive hurricane in Connecticut’s history.
ReadIn September of 1985, Hurricane Gloria made landfall in Connecticut, causing approximately $60 million of damage in the state.
ReadSimsbury and Avon’s fuse-making helped build America’s railroads, mine her natural resources, expand the Panama Canal, and even blow up tree stumps in local farm fields.
ReadThe Hartford Circus Fire on July 6, 1944, may be the worst human-caused disaster ever to have taken place in Connecticut.
ReadA case of mistaken identity causes a vessel to crash into a bridge and results in new a rule for marking safe passage with red lights.
ReadAetna started out as fire insurance company in Hartford in 1819, but spread into life insurance and is now a global leader in the health insurance industry.
ReadOn January 31, 1869, Danbury’s Kohanza Reservoir froze.
ReadConnecticut has experienced thousands of earthquakes since European settled the area, the most active site being the village of Moodus in East Haddam.
ReadBy 1843, Augustus Hazard and partner Allan Denslow formed a joint stock venture called the Hazard Powder Company.
ReadThe state’s busy ports provided an easy point of entry for the disease that claimed millions of lives around the world.
ReadA few minutes before 11:00 pm on October 15, 1955, Greenwich officials pulled the alarm signal and declared a state of emergency.
ReadOn August 9, 1878, a tornado swept from west to east across the northern part of Wallingford.
ReadOn July 16, 1908, the gong of the ambulances on Greenwich Avenue broadcast one of the worst accidents on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
ReadIn the early morning hours of July 11, 1911, a train derailed in Bridgeport, killing fourteen people. Among the first responders were members of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
ReadCalled the worst disaster in Hartford’s history, the fire killed 168 and injured 487, including many children.
ReadHorses, motorcycles, and boats are just a few of the modes of transportation that town emergency personnel have used over the years to get to where they’re needed.
ReadScreen actor, director, and playwright William Gillette owned a houseboat he named Aunt Polly. He lived on the boat and entertained there while he awaited final construction of his Connecticut mansion in East Haddam.
ReadOn April 23, 1987, twenty-eight workers lost their lives during a collapse at the L’Ambiance Plaza construction site in Bridgeport.
ReadOn March 29, 1876, the steamboat City of Hartford hit the Air Line Railroad Bridge on the Connecticut River at Middletown.
ReadOn Sunday, March 11, 1888, a blizzard came unexpectedly to the northeastern United States.
ReadIn 1902, nearly all of Waterbury’s downtown district was destroyed by one of the worst fires in the city’s recorded history.
ReadOn January 29, 1917, watchmen discovered a fire on the ground floor of the G. Fox & Co. building complex located on Main Street in Hartford.
ReadOn January 20, 2007, the 35-year-old New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum met its end as crews imploded the partially dismantled structure.
ReadWhen we speak of the “Flood of 1955,” we should remind ourselves that two separate floods, one in August and a second one in October, occurred.
ReadOne of Connecticut’s worst steamboat disasters occurred on the dark and stormy night of October 8, 1833, on the Connecticut River.
ReadOn December 8, 1961, the casual disposal of a cigarette spread raging flames and deadly smoke through Hartford Hospital.
ReadThe great hurricane of 1938, which hit on September 21, was the first major hurricane to strike New England since 1869.
ReadFor those who lived through the 1918 flu, life was never same. John Delano of New Haven recalled, “The neighborhood changed. People changed. Everything changed.”
ReadApplying lessons learned from the Hurricane of 1938, Connecticut made extensive preparations before the arrival of a similar storm in 1944.
ReadOn September 12, 1873, the bell in the Episcopal Church rang the cry—Mr. Bailey’s carriage house, located in the center of town, was on fire.
ReadIn August of 1955, two hurricanes that moved through Connecticut caused a devastating flood of the Naugatuck River.
ReadSunspots and volcanic eruptions led to cooler than normal temperatures in the summer of 1816.
ReadDespite measures to ensure the safe operation of railroad trains traveling in opposite directions on single-track lines, things sometimes went wrong—with deadly results.
ReadHurricanes Connie and Diane, which both struck in August 1955, exceeded the combined property damage of the Flood of 1936 and Hurricane of 1938.
ReadAt 1:59 a.m. on July 29, 1990, a smoke detector signal alerted the central Greenwich fire station of a fire at the Cos Cob School.
ReadFrom the ashes emerged new approaches to coordinating the town’s fire fighting resources.
ReadDespite passing inspection shortly before the disaster, a fire at the Greenwich nightclub Gulliver’s in 1974 killed two dozen people.
ReadBy 1853, the era of steamboat transportation had largely given way to trains, but there was still a need to manage drawbridges for safe passage.
ReadOn April 22, 1911, aviation pioneer Charles Hamilton crashed his brand new, all white, biplane the “Moth” at Andrews Field in New Britain.
ReadWhile the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York City is one of the most famous tragedies behind the organized labor movement, Connecticut had its share of equally dangerous work environments in the early 20th century.
ReadAt 2 pm on March 2, 1854, the power of steam incorrectly managed and harnessed wreaked havoc at the railroad-car factory Fales & Gray Car Works in Hartford.
ReadHartford’s Union Station and Allyn Hall caught fire on two different days in February. Only one still stands today.
ReadIn the pre-dawn hours of February 18, 1889, the Park Central Hotel in Hartford was ripped apart by a steam boiler explosion.
ReadOn February 14, 1904, Meriden’s town hall burned to the ground due to a fire that lasted eight hours.
ReadOn February 4, 1864, most of Colt’s East Armory, located in Hartford, burned to the ground.
ReadA fire, which swept through Waterbury on a stormy February evening in 1902, would become the worst in its recorded history up to that point.
ReadIn the early morning of January 18, 1978, the roof of the sports coliseum collapsed onto 10,000 empty stadium seats.
ReadOn January 14, 1878, at about 10:00 p.m., a span of the Tariffville Bridge gave way, plunging a Connecticut Western Railroad train into the Farmington River.
ReadDeadly as well as costly, this storm scarred the landscape for decades after and left each Connecticut family with its own tale to tell of the ruinous events.
ReadAs a result of the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944, Connecticut enacted new, strict fire safety regulations for public performances.
ReadBorn in Mansfield, Governor Wilbur Cross helped see Connecticut through the Great Depression and several natural disasters.
ReadOn March 1, 1906, North College at Wesleyan University in Middletown was destroyed by fire.
ReadNot long after midnight on June 28, 1983, a section of the Mianus River Bridge on I-95 in Cos Cob collapsed.
ReadOn May 24, 1962, a tornado hit the towns of Waterbury, Wolcott, and Southington.
ReadThe state generated revenue for urban renewal and social programs through gaming and income tax initiatives.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadAn unexpected and deadly March storm, stretching from Washington, DC, to the Canadian border, buried Connecticut in as much as 50 inches of snow.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadBuilt in 1890, the three-story Plainville Town Hall quickly became the center of daily life in town.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
ReadThe CPTV Original, When Disaster Struck Connecticut, provides an in-depth look at the four major natural disasters that befell Connecticut between 1888 and 1955.
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