The ship Fritz Reuter is on its way to examine the wreck of the Estonia. ibid.
The Turver was directly over the wreck of the Estonia. ibid. Henrik Evertson, journalist & director
We are starting the dive here … We are going down to about 70 metres depth … It seems like it’s listing … ibid.
Estonia rests on a thick layer of soft clay. The wreck may therefore budge. ibid. captions
1996: 10,000 tons of sand and rubble are dumped around the wreck of Estonia. ibid.
It’s totally pushed in here. We’re looking into the boat … That looks like something that’s been done with a huge amount of force ... ibid. sub dive camera feeding dude & Evertson aboard Turver
Very soon after that the vessel turned abruptly to the starboard side. ibid. maritime dude
1915: He is in charge of the largest naval force in the world … Churchill tries to convince his colleagues that Britain should take on Turkey. It is, he claims, the surest and shortest route to victory … Five weeks after the failed naval attacks an invasion force of 30,000 men heads for the Turkish coast … ‘blood and bandages all over the beach … whole regiments wiped out.’ Churchill II: The Long Grass, Channel 5 2021
It’s been a year since fires spread across Australia, scorching and scarring at a speed never seen before. At least 33 people died, an area bigger than the size of England laid to waste. Panorama: Australia Burning, BBC 2020
We survived. 99% of all the species that ever existed didn’t. They were wiped out in a series of global catastrophes; disasters brought life to the verge of extinction. Four and a half billion years ago the Earth collided with another planet; the impact nearly destroyed our world, but instead it made it a home. This is the story of our planet’s difficult birth. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe I: Birth of the Planet, Channel 4 2008
The world has suffered from a series of global catastrophes. Disasters that have wiped out 99% of all the species that have ever lived. But the forces that wiped out many of our ancestors are still at work today. All we have to protect us is a wisp of atmosphere, and all we have to stand on is a thin crust. Mankind could be the next dominant species to face extinction. This is the story of how vulnerable we really are. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe V: Survival Earth
If it’s not impact, then the next most dramatic instant kind of catastrophe is initiated by volcanic eruptions of some kind. Professor Mike Benton
The destruction of planet Earth ... 10) Smackdown from Space ... 9) The Big Freeze ... 8) The Big Burn ... 7) Stopping the Spin ... 6) Torn Between Two Black Holes ... 5) Devoured From Within ... 4) Turn Off the Gravity ... 3) Anti-Matter Annihilation ... 2) Transformed By Strange Matter ... 1) When Parallel Worlds Collide. The Universe s4e6: 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth, History 2009
The seven worst days on planet Earth: 7) The Theia Impact 6) The Late Heavy Bombardment 5) Snowball Earth 4) The Ordovician Extinction 3) The KT Extinction 2) The Great Dying 1) The Solar Apocalypse. The Universe s6e5: Worst Days on Planet Earth
The city of Lisbon on 1st November 1755 – All Saints Day. It’s one of the most important days in the Christian calendar. And the date of one of the greatest disasters in modern times. Sixty thousand people will die in one day alone. 1755 The Lisbon Earthquake
An earthquake [1755] followed by a devastating tsunami striking with the speed and power that astonishes even the experts. ibid.
Three continental plates converge here. Seismically this is a very active area ... Few realise how vulnerable Europe is. ibid.
In the city the houses start to shake. People described a trembling as if a heavy coach were riding by outside. They do nothing and lose valuable time ... Somewhere to the south-west two continental plates suddenly shift with explosive power. Within two minutes the shockwaves reach the capital. At 9.40 a.m. every church bell in the city begins to ring on its own. Then the sky falls in. ibid.
The 1755 earthquake was Big. ibid.
But on one terrible occasion the Queen failed to speak and it proved to be the biggest regret of her reign: In 1966 an horrific mining accident in the Welsh mining village of Aberfan killed over 100 children. The Queen in Her Own Words, Channel 5 2020
What made the scale of suffering so obscene was that it happened during a time of grain surplus in other parts of India. But so fanatically devoted to the iron law of the market was the government that it refused to liberate those supplies for fear it would artificially bring down prices. So common sense not to mention common humanity were sacrificed to the fetish of the market and millions were abandoned to perish. Simon Schama, A History of Britain: The Empire of Good Intentions, BBC 2000
‘An eight-storey building has collapsed near the capital of Dhaka killing more than seventy people.’ The True Cost, news, 2015
Rana Plaza: ‘Two weeks after the catastrophe and the death toll now stands at a staggering of 931 making it the worst garment industry disaster in history.’ ibid.
Reuters: Noting that 81 people had just died in a factory fire in China where they had been locked in to keep them at work. Noam Chomsky, lecture Washington 1 December 1993, ‘Clinton’s Vision’
13th January 2012: the Costa Concordia cruise ship collides with a rock near an Italian island and begins sinking. It’s the largest passenger shipwreck in history. Costa Concordia Disaster: One Year On, National Geographic 2013
Costing an estimated $400m it will be the most expensive and challenging salvage operation ever attempted. ibid.
At 9.45 p.m. the ship hits the rock. ibid.
Why it took so long to abandon ship ... there was confusion on board. ibid.
The ship starts to lean to its left side. ibid.
Twenty minutes after the impact no-one has called a general emergency ... the announcers repeat the same reassuring message. ibid.
In the early hours of 14th June 2017 the residents of Grenfell Tower woke up to this – Britain’s worst fire since the Blitz. Grenfell: The First 24 Hours, ITV 2018
Fires in tower blocks are usually contained to a room or a flat so the rapidly spreading flames had taken the Brigade by surprise. They called for back up. ibid.
On the street outside people are searching for relatives and friends. ibid.
The Grenfell fire claimed 72 lives. ibid.
This was our base, this was a fortress, it was a concrete castle. Grenfell, resident, BBC 2018
I was lying in bed when I heard my neighbour’s fire alarm – so no central fire alarm. ibid.
They wasn’t coming out. They were just inside. There was long periods of nothing. ibid.
What I loved was how quickly the community came together. ibid.
No-one should have lived there. It melted like a candle. ibid.
No-one from the council. No-one. ibid.
Shame on you! Shame on you! ibid. crowd protest at Theresa May
I paid seven hundred pounds a month rent there. ibid. resident
More than half of the 230 households displaced by the fire remain in temporary accommodation. ibid. caption
On 14th June 2017 people across the country watched as Grenfell Tower burned. For some, this was history repeating itself. In the decades before Grenfell, five fires across the British Isles gave clear warnings of the tragedy. But key lessons were ignored. The Fires that Foretold Grenfell, BBC 2018
Failures that allowed the Tower to be wrapped in cladding that turned the building into an inferno. Failures that saw people told to stay put in their homes as the Tower burned. And failures to protect the building from the spread of fire creating a death-trap that took the lives of 72 people. ibid.
Douglas Isle of Man 1973 Summerland: the deadliest fire in the British Isles since the Blitz … One of the largest indoor holiday parks in Europe … Three boys smoking cigarettes had set fire to a crazy golf kiosk … ‘Floor to ceiling flames … a waterfall of flames’ … Fifty people died … The Inquiry found that the building had been wrapped in highly flammable materials causing the fires' rapid spread and high death toll. The Inquiry also found the advice to people to stay put in Summerland seriously hindered the evacuation. ibid.
5th April 1991 Knowsley Heights: the newly installed cladding on a tower block in Liverpool caught fire … Britain’s first tower block cladding fire. ibid.
Cladding was not required to be fire-proof. ibid.
1999 Irvine, North Ayrshire: a cladding fire in western Scotland echoed what happened at Knowsley Heights but this time it proved fatal. ibid.
Stevenage 2005 Harrow Court … ‘The fire was started by some tea-lights’ … ‘The advice at the time was to stay put.’ ibid. firefighter