Somebody send help! I can’t stop watching Fascinating Horror episodes on Youtube. I hope it’s not what will consume the rest of my retired life, but only a brief period of extreme laziness brought on by a short night and a slight hangover, and continued by momentum.
But seriously, has anybody else gotten addicted to watching short disaster documentaries? No? Just me? I’m not sure why I’m so interested in watching people die in myriad fascinating and obscure ways. Do you realize there are many deaths from people jumping or falling into the boiling pools at Yellowstone park? A guy jumped into one to rescue his friend’s dog. Not HIS dog. His FRIEND’s dog. His last words were, “Well that was the stupidest thing I could have done!” So right, chum. And I’m a dog lover. I would have been scarred for life after watching a dog boil himself to death, but I would NOT have jumped in after him. It’s hard to credit, except he must not have realized just how hot that pool was. (approximately 199F)
Then there are the people who have fallen into the Grand Canyon. Those stories don’t end well.
Then, there are stories about people who should also be entered for the Darwin Awards, as in the Yellowstone Park doc. In that category I would also have to include “A Brief history of Disastrous Gender Reveals”. That one has to be seen to be believed, but suffice it to say it involves explosions and forest fires.
Many more are about fires, whether in a building— like a night club, or a hotel— or as a result of a car or plane crash, but the worst fire of all would have to be the Halifax Explosion, and I thought the Fascinating Horror guy did a good job of relating the events of that terrible day. In case you don’t know about it, two ships, the SS Mont Blanc, and the Imo out of Denmark, collided in Halifax harbour causing a huge explosion. It’s still the biggest manmade non-nuclear explosion. As soon as the collision happened, the captain of the Mont-Blanc, knowing how much explosive material he was holding, ordered “Abandon ship!”, so most of his crew survived. Not so, many of the people on shore. 2000 people died, 9000 were injured. The Imo ended up on shore, swept there by the tsunami that followed the explosion. Then there was a blizzard…. You see why I can’t look away??
However, the narrator doesn’t over-sensationalize when he tells a story, but sticks to the facts, which are, generally, sensational enough. He reports them almost as news stories, but with an historic flavour , so you get a lot of grainy black-and-white photography and video footage. I think the oldest stories go back into the 19th century, but most of them are from the 20th, which is no surprise, since with the advancements in technology there are so many more ways for things to explode, or at least go awry. Disasters involving roller coasters and other amusement park rides come to mind. Engineering fiascos like bridge or building collapses are popular and I find them particularly interesting. Just how a couple of small mistakes or oversights, or a bit of carelessness, or just bad communication can lead to such tragedies, sometimes years down the line.
Dave is always telling me to stop watching–he can’t understand why I’m so drawn to these things. Neither can I. I can’t watch horror or suspense films, yet I can watch these real life dramas one after the other. Judging by the comment section of these videos, I’m not the only who can’t stop watching them; I’m one of thousands. Analyzing it, I think I’m morbidly fascinated by the fact that people start their day happily not knowing that they’re about to face something beyond their imagination. Ghoulish, I know. But there are also moments of heroism, and narrow escapes that are pretty thrilling. The Miracle on the Hudson episode is awesome, so it’s not all dreary and sad.
If you have any insights into this obsession, let me know, I’ll be knitting in front of the computer, watching “The Boston Molasses Flood”.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
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