A metropolis devastated; neighbors coming to its support; the hunt for a scapegoat: Although the Angelenos enduring wildfires immediately lead lives dramatically completely different from these of the individuals who survived the Halifax Explosion greater than a century in the past, the tales of the 2 disasters intermittently rhyme.
On the morning of Dec. 6, 1917, an unintentional collision of two ships in Halifax Harbour set off an uncontrollable hearth. One of many ships was a Belgian aid vessel; the opposite was the SS Mont-Blanc, a French munitions ship packed to the gills with explosives reminiscent of TNT, picric acid, benzol and guncotton. The catastrophe was one of many largest unintentional human-caused explosions of all time, killing near 1,800 folks and destroying or damaging greater than 12,000 buildings within the blink of an eye fixed.
When Boston despatched Halifax a prepare laden with provides and medical workers by way of a historic snowstorm, it marked a placing early occasion of coordinated worldwide catastrophe aid. In order I watched canary-yellow Canadian Tremendous Scooper planes roar into Los Angeles to assist douse the ungovernable firestorms threatening my dwelling, my grieving Nova Scotian coronary heart soared: reciprocity between previous mates.
However our metropolis also can glean classes from the Halifax Explosion — particularly in regards to the risks of scapegoating in a time of disaster. The instance of Francis Mackey, the Halifax mariner who was blamed for the catastrophe, is a reminder that emotionally charged finger-pointing within the aftermath of a disaster usually finds the improper lightning rod.
Mackey — whose story we all know thanks largely to the historian Janet Maybee’s ebook “Aftershock: The Halifax Explosion and the Persecution of Pilot Francis Mackey” — was tasked with guiding the Mont-Blanc into the harbor, and, miraculously, he survived the blast. Dealing with the devastation, the general public instantly sought somebody in charge, and Mackey, an skilled maritime pilot, served as a handy scapegoat for the federal government. He was stripped of his pilot’s license, arrested, imprisoned, vilified within the press and — together with the ship’s captain and the naval officer who oversaw the harbor — charged with manslaughter.
Finally, a Nova Scotia Supreme Courtroom justice examined the details and located Mackey harmless. However the public persecution and reputational injury had been finished. Mackey, cursed as a “assassin” within the streets, was one more sufferer in a shattered metropolis.
In the long run, no single particular person may very well be held chargeable for Halifax’s explosion. The reply was much less thrilling and extra apparent: The catastrophe was a rare accident in a rustic at warfare and a group within the blast zone of an enormous arsenal.
Equally, Los Angeles’ catastrophe is a product of human-caused local weather change colliding with an electrified metropolis constructed amid flamable chaparral. Whereas the seek for solutions and classes is warranted, we might be clever to observe forbearance and chorus from casting private blame for a short time.
Besmirching Mayor Karen Bass for touring overseas, prematurely accusing anybody of arson or inventing conspiracy theories about who turned off our hydrants is not going to douse a single flame, rebuild a single dwelling or deliver a single cherished one again from the useless. As in Halifax, no single particular person is or ever may very well be in charge.
Famend for our creativeness, hustle and open-mindedness, Angelenos are referred to as by this catastrophe to indicate magnanimity within the face of devastation. And should you look in the correct locations, we already are.
100 eight years later, nobody who lived by way of the Halifax Explosion is left. However the Hydrostone, the Halifax neighborhood we rebuilt with American help, stays. And each winter since, because the anniversary of the explosion approaches, Nova Scotians ship one in all our most interesting evergreens to Boston Frequent: a Christmas reward and a logo of our enduring gratitude for the town’s assist in our darkest hour.
100 years from now, what of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires might be remembered? These we misplaced — and people who helped.
Ben Proudfoot is a filmmaker and the founding father of Breakwater Studios.
