The Halifax Explosion: 33 Photos Of History’s Worst Explosion Before Nuclear Weapons

Devastating images of the Halifax Explosion, a cataclysm so great that some victims were blinded simply by looking at it.

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Everything within a half-mile of the explosion was completely obliterated.

December 6, 1917City of Toronto Archives

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A massive smoke cloud ripples upward above the Halifax Explosion.

December 6, 1917Nova Scotia Archives/Flickr

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Farther from the harbor, the homes of Halifax lay in ruins.

December 6, 1917Nova Scotia Archives/Flickr

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Two survivors sift through the ruins of what was once their home.

December 6, 1917Wikimedia Commons

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Tufts Cove School, located in the nearby city of Dartmouth, is every bit as destroyed as the homes in Halifax.

December 6, 1917Wikimedia Commons

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Soldiers move onto the scene, trying to rescue anyone they can from under the rubble and debris.

December 6, 1917Library and Archives Canada

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The dead are laid out on a sled and dragged away.

December 6, 1917Library of Congress

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American Red Cross workers help carry a wounded man to a makeshift hospital set up nearby.

December 6, 1917Library of Congress

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A tent city set up for the survivors of the explosion.

January 5, 1918.Wikimedia Commons

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Volunteers tend to the wounded inside of a makeshift hospital set up in a commercial building.

Circa December 1917 to January 1918.Wikimedia Commons

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A child, injured in the explosion, recuperates in a hospital bed.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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The badly burned legs of a young child caught in the fire.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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Women from Africville, the black district of Halifax, make their way through the rubble.

December 1917.Nova Scotia Archives/Flickr

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The ruins of the Halifax Harbor.

December 6, 1917.Nova Scotia Archives/Flickr

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A pair of boats starts to move once more amid the devastation of Halifax Harbor.

December 1917.Library and Archives Canada

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The ruined heap of the SS Imo, one of the ships that caused the explosion, lies lifelessly in the water.

January 1918.Nova Scotia Archives/Flickr

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St. Joseph's Convent, a church and a school, in ruins after the devastation.

January 26, 1918.Nova Scotia Archives/Flickr

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Crushed hens struggle for air inside of a ruined hen house.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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Rescue workers sift through the debris and devastation.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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Two women look at the debris, hoping something of the life that went up in flames can still be recovered.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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The people start to rebuild.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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A Knights of Columbus building has been converted into a hospital to manage the massive numbers of wounded poeple.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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Nurses help the wounded inside of a temporary hospital.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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A family stands vigil over their wounded child's bed.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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The Army and Navy Brewery company after being torn in half by the blast.

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. December 1917.Nova Scotia Archives/Flickr

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A building destroyed in the explosion.

December 1917.Wikimedia Commons

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A home lies in ruins.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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Workers sift through the ruins of peoples' homes.

December 1917.Library and Archives Canada

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A church destroyed in the explosion.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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Caskets for the recovered dead are laid out for burial.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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A crowd gathers to watch the funeral for the 2,000 who died in their city.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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Workers prepare to rebuild their city.

December 1917.City of Toronto Archives

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The people of Halifax start to rebuild their city.

January 26, 1918.Nova Scotia Archives/Flickr

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The Halifax Explosion: 33 Photos Of History’s Worst Explosion Before Nuclear Weapons

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"Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode."

These were the last words of Vince Coleman, the train dispatcher who met his end on December 6, 1917, in the Halifax Explosion. Seconds later, the ship would explode and set off the 3,000 tons of explosives inside. It would be the biggest and most devastating explosion in history until the invention of the nuclear bomb.

The Halifax Explosion started when two ships collided in the harbor of the Nova Scotian capital of Halifax. A Norwegian ship, the SS Imo, had slammed into the SS Mont-Blanc, a French ship filled to the brim with TNT, picric acid, benezole, and guncotton.

The collision cracked open the barrel of benezole, dousing the ship in flammable chemicals. Then the SS Imo's engine kicked in, setting off a spark that would kill thousands.

All 3,000 tons of explosives then went off at once, burning with a heat of more than 9,000 °F. In seconds, the flames eviscerated every building in a half-mile radius, while a brutal shockwave tore through the rest of the city, traveling more than half a mile per second and shaking the city to its bones.

The inferno tore through Halifax, burning so bright that some were blinded just from looking at the light of the explosion. Others were trapped inside their homes by the roaring fires around them. They had no way to escape from the smoke that slowly choked them and the flames that left nothing but ashes in their wake.

"The sight was awful," one witness said. "People hanging out of windows dead. Some with their heads missing, and some thrown onto the overhead telegraph wires."

By the end, the Halifax Explosion had ended 2,000 lives and seriously injured at least 9,000 more.

As horrible as it was, though, it would have been worse if it wasn't for that one final message from Vince Coleman. He stayed at his post to make sure the train bound for the harbor wouldn't come in. He gave up his chance for one last mad dash for survival to save the lives of the 300 people on board that train.

"Guess this will be my last message," Coleman said as he watched the flames burn through the hull of the SS Mont-Blanc. "Good-bye boys."

After this look at the Halifax Explosion, find out about the devastation of the Mt. Pelée volcanic disaster and the most devastating disasters of the 21st century.