The town that suddenly disappeared

Image:  View of the mushroom cloud roughly 15-20 seconds after the blast, taken 21 km (13 miles) away from the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbour

Graditude for Medical Relief 90 Years Ago Today

Every Christmas since 1971, Nova Scotia has donated a large Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided immediately after the Halifax Explosion. The tree is Boston's official Christmas tree and is lit in the Boston Common throughout the holiday season.

The Halifax Explosion occurred on Friday, December 6, 1917, when the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the huge detonation of a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, that had accidentally collided with a Norwegian ship in "The Narrows" section of the Halifax Harbour. Approximately 2,000 people (mostly Canadians) were killed by debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and it is estimated that over 9,000 people were injured. This was the largest artificial explosion until the first atomic bomb test explosion in 1945 and is still one of the world's largest artificial non-nuclear explosions to date.

At 8:40 in the morning, Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship which was chartered by the French government to carry munitions, collided with the unloaded Norwegian ship Imo, chartered by the Commission for Relief in Belgium to carry relief supplies. Mont-Blanc caught fire ten minutes after the collision and exploded about twenty-five minutes later (at 9:04:35 AM). All buildings and structures within two square kilometres of the explosion were obliterated, including those in the neighbouring communities of Richmond and Dartmouth. The explosion caused a tsunami in the harbour, and a pressure wave of air that snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded vessels, and carried fragments of the Mont-Blanc for kilometres.

BLIZZARD

The following day brought a blizzard which dropped over 16 inches of snow on the community. Those who remained trapped in rubble, the injured, or those who had not been found or tended to, were often left in the bitter cold, adding to the tragic losses. Rescuers were forced to work through the storm, and many people who were left homeless found shelter wherever they could. Houses left standing did not have windows after the blast, leaving survivors to use tar paper, carpets and other available materials to seal their homes from the elements. The snow, however, did aid firemen in ensuring any remaining fires were extinguished.

MEDICAL RELIEF FROM MASSACHUSETTS

Almost immediately following the blast, Halifax hospitals began to overflow with the dead and injured. Anybody with medical training and experience, both military and civilian, found themselves tasked with the treatment of thousands. Doctors and nurses aware of the disaster began to arrive as early as that afternoon, arriving from Amherst, Truro, Kentville and New Glasgow, Nova Scotia via relief train. The Military medical staff was among the immediate response teams, with vessels in the harbour or within sight of the smoke or earshot of the blast arriving to aid. American support was strong, particularly from Massachusetts, with support trains bringing doctors, nurses, orderlies and much needed supplies to the effort. The first relief train left from Boston at 10:00 PM on the day of the explosion. Relentlessly chugging through wintery terrain and through heavy snowfall, the train reached Halifax just over 30 hours later at 3:00 AM on December 8, unloading much needed food, water, medical supplies, and some aid workers to relieve the ones working non-stop at shuffling through the remains of the battered city.