In a small Pennsylvania town, the play set to be performed on a cold Monday night in January drew hundreds of people to the Rhoads Opera House. One hundred and seventy of them would never make it home alive. Videos:  The Rhoads Opera House Fire: Legacy Of A Tragedy  Articles and books:  Midwinter Mourning and A Town in Tragedy, by Mary Jane Schneider Trapped in the Third Act: The Rhoads Opera House Fire, Boyertown 1908 

Episode 215: The Rhoads Opera House fire

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A year ago this week, I covered the Amagasaki train derailment in 2005 in Japan. Why not cover a second one seven years earlier near a small town in Germany? Videos:   Seconds from Disaster: The Eschede derailment  TS2018 Rail Disasters - Derailment at High Speed (1998 Eschede train disaster)   What Went Wrong: Countdown to Catastrophe: The Eschede Disaster   Articles and books:    Page about the Eschede train disaster memorial   Germany recalls the Eschede train disaster   The Cost of Comfort: The 1998 Eschede Train Derailment  

Episode 235: The Eschede train disaster

It's early in the morning on a Tuesday when you're awakened by the shaking of your bed, of your entire home. You think for a moment it's the end of the world. You and your family make it out of your home, even though so many others do not. For a moment, you think you are safe. Then, you smell smoke. Videos:   A Trip Down Market Street, San Francisco - April 14th, 1906   Disaster by the Bay: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906    The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Documentary   Footage of San Francisco's 1906 quake as it occurred   San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1906 like you've never seen before in color! [HD]   Articles and books:    The San Francisco Earthquake: A Minute-by-Minute Account of the 1906 Disaster, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts   The Museum of the City of San Francisco: Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake, April 18 - 23, 1906, along with a timeline of the graft investigation  

Episode 234: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake - Part Three

Episode 233: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake - Part Two

It's early in the morning on a Tuesday when you're awakened by the shaking of your bed, of your entire home. You think for a moment it's the end of the world. You and your family make it out of your home, even though so many others do not. For a moment, you think you are safe. Then, you smell smoke. Videos:   A Trip Down Market Street, San Francisco - April 14th, 1906  Disaster by the Bay: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906   The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Documentary  Footage of San Francisco's 1906 quake as it occurred  San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1906 like you've never seen before in color! [HD]   Articles and books:    The San Francisco Earthquake: A Minute-by-Minute Account of the 1906 Disaster, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts  The Museum of the City of San Francisco: Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake, April 18 - 23, 1906, along with a timeline of the graft investigation  

Episode 232: The 1906 San Francisco earthquake - Part One

The deadliest fire in American history happened not in Chicago, but in a small Wisconsin town to the north of Chicago on the exact same day - October 8th, 1871. Videos:   Watch now: The story of the tabernacle in the Peshtigo Fire   Lake Michigan shipwreck; sank during 1871 Peshtigo Fire   Articles and books:    Firestorm at Peshtigo, by Denise Gess and William Lotz   The Great Midwest Wildfires of 1871   Wisconsin Shipwrecks: The George L. Newman    

Episode 215: The Rhoads Opera House fire

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