What is the first major disaster you remember

[Shmoigel]

The first one I clearly remember was the King’s Cross fire in 87 and Lockerbie in 88

Tell me yours

An awful lot happened in the second half of the eighties! Zeebrugge was the one that leapt to mind, but yes Great Storm and Chernobyl (we all worried about Welsh lamb becoming contaminated) Plus the Hungerford massacre which was close enough to home to be disturbing.

Dunblane, I was 6. We wrote cards to send to the school.

Chernobyl.

Chernobyl. I can’t remember seeing it maps on the TV with he fallout zones over wales.

Yes I was going to say this one too. I don't actually remember the disaster as it happened though, more I remember the oil slicks every year when we went on holiday to Cornwall. I actually thought oil on a beach was a natural phenomenon, like seaweed or seashells. I thought this until I was quite embarrassingly old when it suddenly clicked that it all related to the Torrey Canyon disaster.

That was also one of my earliest disaster memories. We were a military family and did a lot of ferry journeys from NI and then Belgium home to visit family. We had travelled on that ferry many times so it was relatable. I still love ferry journeys. The smell of ferries is the smell of coming home.

There is a documentary about it on You Tube.

It changed the law, a coast guard can now order a crew to abandon a ship but at that time they couldn't.

It was just before Christmas, and the ship's captain had his partner (who was pregnant) and her two children on board.

I’m closer to 60 than 50 and remember a a lot -Zeebrugge, Heysel, Bradford fire etc but the events of Hillsborough and the Lockerbie Pan AM bombing are the 2 events and the ramifications from those 2 horrendous incidents really hit home.

Yes, it’s called Cruel Sea. It’s the most haunting, heartbreaking thing I have ever watched. The storm into which the boat was launched was so bad that the Coxswain refused to take more than one man from each family as his crew.

The courage of those men is beyond my comprehension.

The sinking of MS Estonia in 1994. I'm from around these parts. I don't remember it vividly, however, just vaguely.

The major one that registered was 9/11. I was 13 back then. I vividly remember coming back home from school, switching the TV on, and all the channels we had just showing the twins smoking. And our history teacher talking about it to us next day, during the class, explaining things.

Admittedly, I grasped the actual significance of 9/11 only much later. At the time it didn't seem THAT big of a deal. I mean, it was obviously a horrible thing to happen, and I was sorry for all the people who died, don't get me wrong. But I couldn't understand why is the whole world making this much fuss about two buildings in one country.

I didn't understand what it actually meant, America's standing in the world, and the wider repercussions back then.

I still think it's probably the most significant disaster to happen in my lifetime. It changed the world in a lot of profound ways for a lot of people.

I think cutting the broadcast to something that is live is probably a no win situation.

People who had family / friends at Hillsborough watched hoping they could see their loved one.

The same with 9/11. I watched something about it and in a school, I think middle school, a teacher had put the live coverage on as it was 'history in the making'.

One of the children in the class speculated about whether his father would be sent there. That's when the teacher asked who had a firefighter parent and about half a dozen children put their hands up.

Lockerbie and Kings Cross as well. I’m 44

9/11. I was in reception and we had a big assembly about it and had to have lessons on the school field the day after. Not sure why the Head was worried that Bin Laden going after a tiny rural primary school was a sure thing

Yes, this too for me, apart from the ongoing Troubles deaths, which were omnipresent. In terms of individual Troubles atrocities, probably the first I remember is Warrenpoint, which was the same day as Mountbatten's boat was bombed, and just before John Paul II's visit to Ireland.

I was only a small child, but I think you got quite desensitised, there were so many regular horrors.

This. Reduced my mother to tears.

Aberfan.
My headteacher was from the area and he told us about it in assembly, through his tears. I was the same age as some of the victims.
Awful.

Dunblane 😢

Aberfan. I also remember Kennedy being shot but that's not a disaster in the context of the question.

Me too. I was 5 and vividly remember watching footage of the rescuers washing poor seabirds in detergent to clean off the oil (and learning many years later that the detergent had destroyed the natural oils on their feathers so they died of cold anyway) 😓

Falklands war. I was 11 and my older brother wanted to join the Navy (he just turned 18!) but was turned down.

The Birmingham pub bombings. I was 5 and it was local to us. Around that time there were also news reports of letter bombs being sent, I know now they’d have been sent to specific targets but at the time I was terrified every time the post was delivered.

I think the next one I remember is the Tenerife airport disaster.

Aberfan.

Yes, I remember that.

i don’t understand why I don’t remember the Birmingham pub bombings - 1974, I would have been 10 and it was local so I feel like I should have some memories around this, but I don’t.

Maybe your parents shielded you from it because it was local.

Snap. My dad was driving a couple of friends back from my 13th birthday tea and I was along for the ride, and it came on the radio news.

Although I do remember Chernobyl, which apparently was the year before, but not so vividly.