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The Halifax Explosion of 1917

In December 1917 the city of Halifax was devastated by an explosion caused by the collision of the Belgian relief ship Imo, and Mont Blanc, a ship carrying a large load of explosives headed for the European Allied war effort. About 2000 people were killed and countless more blinded or otherwise seriously injured. Alice Hagen, who lived with her family on South Bland Street in Halifax, near the harbour, narrowly escaped injury. She went out into the glassed-in front porch to greet the milkman at the door. Afer she went back into the house, the windows in the porch shattered inward.(1) She had narrowly avoided being killed or suffering the commonest injury resulting from the Explosion, blindness caused by shattered glass.
(1) This story was told by Rachel Dickinson, Alice Hagen's daughter (Interview with Bob Campbell, Aug 2003)