I've done a few other videos covering crowd crushes... including some more recent ones. Here's the video I made a few years back about the Who Concert Crush in Cincinnati in 1979: ua-cam.com/video/PntgiGbnwNg/v-deo.html
You're summary at the end of the video is simply wrong. The crushes at Mecca continue to this day, even after several upgrades to the pilgrimage site. And they kill far more people.
Crushes scare me more than a fire does. With smoke inhalation you pass out pretty quickly, but in a crush, you are stuck there, unable to breathe, twisted among all the other bodies and getting just enough air to prolong your suffering. It sounds absolutely brutal.
I once made my way to the front of the first concert I'd ever been to about 15 years ago (The Warped Tour). I quickly learned what a mistake that was and if it wasn't for a really nice man who helped me make my way out, I have no doubt I wouldn't have made it out. It's soo scary...
Those long dresses must have trapped those women, with all those people on top of them. I always wear shoes that I can break into a run with. No backless or high heels. Nowadays, you have to be careful & be aware of your surroundings. (Parades, movies, marathons, restaurants, shopping, schools have all been crime scenes).
Agree with you. Once got caught in a crush in a tunnel at a rock festival. Wasn't for very long, but never again!! Nothing surpasses that feeling of panic, not being able to move or breathe!
Actually, "fun" fact for the day: It is not by itself illegal in the United States to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater. No, really, it isn't. It has never been the law of the land in the US. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s opinion in _Schenck v. United States_ held it as an example of the limits of free speech, but it's never been settled law, and that case was overturned 50 years later in 1969, as part of _Brandenburg v. Ohio._ You _can_ hypothetically be arrested for making a false report of an emergency or, if people die, for involuntary manslaughter, but it is not a crime in and of itself to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
Watching this channel has made me wary of being anywhere where there's an overcrowding of people, especially if it's not an open space (ie. it's inside a building, inside a fenced place, or the like.)
Completely understand, when I was younger I used to go to rock concerts and alcohol was served. Always put your girl in front of you while walking to or away from your seats because guys would take their perverse hand to play grab ass or worse. Bonner Springs Kansas at the used to be called Sandstone amphitheater.
My brother's girlfriend died in the crush at The Who concert at Riverfront Stadium. Since then we're all careful. Too packed? Can't find the exits? Too far from the exit?Our lives aren't worth it.
Uuugggghhh all of these disasters are awful but crushes are so so disturbing to me. A writhing stuck mass of panicked humans is just a horrifying and heartbreaking thought 💔
Over the years I have seen several news stories about crushes. It does not make sense when I see the people all over each other and I think, "Just get up!" Obviously, it does not work that way!
I'v read the story of the Great White concert in Rhode Island. There was a mass of people trying to get out of the door and became trapped, piled up on each other. Half in, half out, but the rescuers couldn't get them freed. They all died.
@@su-rv2uq makes it even worse considering the fire and the fact that some would have been burning alive too, unable to move or do anything but scream...
@@su-rv2uq I think footage of Great White was where I realized one cannot simply get up or in that case, get out (if I recall, many were standing up and could not make it out of the door due to being trapped).
Once panic sets in with a large crowd, it’s pretty much impossible to expect calmness. In an instant ppl have already made up in their minds that something terrible is happening and they need to get away from it
That's why theatres have a code phrase for 'building needs to be evacuated' so the word fire or whatever is never spoken but the staff hear it broadcast, know what's going on and prepare to evacuate the building before the public panic.
Additional fact: this historic building was demolished in 1927 to make room for the VA Hospital. The congregation has constructed a new building in a suburb of Birmingham. There is now room for only 1,000 people, so extra services were added to accommodate the large congregation.
Thank you for the update but I am curious why they chose to demolish a relatively new building. The church was a stunning and beautiful embodiment of the richness and importance of the Pastor and the congregation only for it to be destroyed after 25 years. This saddens me as it was an important moment and significant reminder of how important it was for POC to have representation at the turn of the century.
@@NatureLover-62150 people died there and I'm sure there were painful memories for thousands of parishioners. Additionally, those caught in the crush on the stairs were likely convinced that the design was a deathtrap.
I’m a very tall individual and I always thought that if I was ever in a crush situation, I wouldn’t have to worry because I can still breathe above the crowd, until it happened to me. It wasn’t a crush situation, but it was a very congested event, it was a nightclub. It was Fort Lauderdale on Halloween night, we were all pushed together so close, I didn’t even think there was enough room to dance, it felt like the air was being pulled out of my body with how packed it was! Never wanna deal with that again, and I don’t encourage anybody to ever have to be an environment where they are in a crowd like that.
@@JWaititi The reason why you create military is that the population believes that they need protection from some external enemy. Hence it is frightened. Of course, in some countries the population is frightened of their own military (as it should be, given what any military can do to it).
What I love about your disaster content, Kristian, is that you cover so many relatively unknown, sparsely circulated, and more importantly, not hackneyed and done to death by a myriad of other UA-cam channels. Along with 'Mark Felton Productions', 'Paul Joseph Watson', 'Reading the Past (with Dr. Kat Marchant)', and 'Caitlin Doughty' (formerly, 'Ask a Mortician', you have long since remained in my top 5 go-to UA-cam channels, even towards the upper end of the spectrum of those, at that.
I tend to avoid crowded areas for the fear of something like this happening. I've never heard of this incident. Thank you FH for bringing this long-forgotten and historic disaster to light
There have been scores of crushes since. Some worse. The Cambodia bridge crush, the Mecca crush, and the Hillsborough and Peru stadium crushes. I am always looking for an escape route when I am in a crowd.
I have read aboutnthe Hajj crushes. With so many pilgrims, even those big special roads are not enough. Language barriers and national rivalries make the problem so much worse. I do not follow the Islamic faith, but I know the pilgrimage is important and it is so devastating to see those numbers and hear the personal stories. :(
There's been a couple Mecca crushes that have killed over a thousand people. I have only a base understanding of Islam, but I know one of the things Muslims do is make a pilgrimage to Mecca during the Hajj, which means hundreds of thousands of people are gathering in one place at the same time -- a recipe for massive crowd crushes. It's really sad that despite efforts at crowd control, deadly crushes can still happen, with one that claimed over two thousand lives happening as recently as 2015.
All crowds are scary. You can't control what others may do times however many people are there. And you can be sure that one in ten or more will panic which may set off an even larger percentage of panic. Always plan for your escape routes (plural) on the way in and consider that fire, smoke, or darkness from a loss of power may hinder you.
For my graduate ceremony this weekend, we were jam packed into a long narrow hallway followed by an even narrower staircase, with at least a thousand students all trying to leave the building after 5 sweltering hours burning in the sun. It was so dangerous that I remembered the lessons from this and similar channels, and was alert, keeping my eye out for emergency exits (there were almost none) and mentally preparing myself to brace my arms and protect my torso in case of a crush. Thankfully in the absence of emergency the sardine stream of students eventually escaped safely through narrow passages and up stairs, but wow that path is a disaster waiting to happen (and yes, it was the official exit we were told to use).
Well, they would sound the same in a Northern accent, too, since Northerners would say the long "i" in both "fight" and "fire" in a relatively "closed" manner.
No matter where I go anymore, I check out where the exits are. Motel, restaurant, theater etc. Your videos always fascinate me. I so enjoy them. Thank you.
Me Too With children always knew my responsibility to protect. We always had a plan Even when Covid came. We protected our own safety. You have to be responsible for self.
I'm in the UK. During Covid, the government reduced the hours that our supermarkets could open, and forced smaller shops to close. So instead of spreading the shopping across 24 hours, more intense crowds of people had to queue together and shop together within the reduced hours. The obvious result was simply to make the supermarkets MORE crowded. This was when I realised that the government's supposed 'prevention' strategies were nothing of the sort, and instead just an exercise in unthinking, blind compliance.
Well, the idea was the lane system, a one way trip around the main aisles, and then you could branch off to get to the aisle you wanted. Of course, not only did nobody actually adhere to those rules, but there was nobody or no structure to enforce it bar a pathetic decal marked on the floor, with arrows and lines like road markings that were a mere suggestion to most people
Wait until you here that in the US and some other nations, such mandates have been deemed illegal, unconstitutional,arbitrary, oppressive and unnecessary. Good Lord..Fauci the douche admitted himself the 6 foot rule never had any scientific basis. And regardless of all that. ...only a moron would try to stop the spread of a disease sooooo dangerous it was the next coming of the Bubonic Plague 😏 by arbitrarily closing( again now ruled to have been illegally ) select businesses ...and not expecting the general public to accumulate ..no matter the size of the structure...into what businesses were "" allowed" to remain open. It was the stupidest thing I nay have ever witnessed. And people fell hand over foot for it.
It's been demonstrated over and over that in a panic, people try to get out the same way that they came in. This church had six exits. I'm sure that anyone remembering that fact got out just fine. It's extremely important to always know where all the exits are, and don't follow the crowd if there's an alternative way out. We've known for a long time how to prevent tragedies like this, but it still keeps happening, either through poor design or people simply not knowing to run away from the crowd if there are other ways out. And that front entrance design seems like it wasn't made with elderly or disabled parishioners in mind, panic or no panic. It was a tragedy waiting to happen.
There's nothing more terrifying than to be caught in a crowd crush so tight that bodies can't even fall. What a nightmare. Misheard shouting and a crowd is a receipe for disaster, can't imagine the PTSD survivors and witnesses went through afterwards.
Fascinating Horror is one of the best channels on UA-cam--reliably consistent, well-written and produced, and one of the BEST narrators around. Thank you for always delivering amazing content, FH!
I'm a native Georgian and had never heard of this. Terrible tragedy. And there are even more recent examples. Hate the thought of being in a big crowd like this.
It is offtopic to ask this, but if s.o. says "I'm a native Georgian" - does it mean you are from Georgia (country) or from state of Georgia in USA? Georgia is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the east. It is about 3,800 km by car from my home Georgia also is a state in USA, about 7,500 km with an airplane.
I was at Charlotte Motor Speedway on sunday, sold out crowd of 95,000. After pre race ceremonies were over they told everybody to get up to their seats through the 3 small entries way through the catch fence. The 10,000 or so people who were down on the field were pushing themselves through the gate and almost started a crush. Later on in the evening, severe weather entered the area and they told the fans to leave their seats and get under the stands to take shelter from the lightning and rain. 95,000 people were either slipping down the aluminum stairs into each other, crushing each other to get outside through the small ticket gate, or trying to get to the bathrooms where people were squishing each other into the door. Absolutely insane what Sheep mentality will do to you if you aren’t careful.
@@Elizabeth-n3v2u Definitely a trend here in the south. Most Speedways are like this given the 12 year stretch of people not going to races like they used to. Charlotte removed almost 60,000 seats because of low attendance.
I was watching the race on TV and didn’t know about any of this. I am aware the reason they do this is in case of lightning but surely there’s a better, more organized way to get people to safety. Maybe “boarding zones” like they have on airplanes.
That's what I was thinking! Two people couldn't recognize a genuine mistake on the part of either side! They couldn't even see the possible humor in the situation, given their overly crowded accommodations! The so-called generation of "manners and good grace" were not what they were cracked up to be!
The horror is it wasn’t a fire, an emergency exit or even standard exit blocked or locked, it wasn’t a construction defect…it was just too damn many people. And it still happens even in this day and age, such as that Halloween event on that street in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Christian, there are certain of these tragedies that you are the most qualified person to outline and describe because of your huge sympathy and complete humanity when you share about them. I am always touched by the gentleness you use when you describe the experiences of the people who suffered survivors or victims. You have found your calling brother. I really appreciate you sharing your humanity and your care for human beings with us in this format.
It's so interesting you went as far back as the 1902 for this crowd crush tragedy. That poor woman talking about how all she could do was wait, even though there were dead bodies on top of her was horrifying. The people who died standing up too .. Wow. Great video as usual.
Wow! My grandma was only 5 months old when this happened! No wonder I never heard of this! She obviously wouldn't be reading the newspapers back then!! LOL!! This is just horrible. What a very sad thing to come out of such a positive speech! I wish today we had speakers like Booker. He was powerful and changed so many lives for the better. A great man indeed!
I attended a wedding at a church with similar stairs leading up to it, though not beyond the door. Wisely, everyone uses what was once the back entrance, but I hope it's never so packed that they need both exits!
My most traumatic event like this happened at Lollapalooza in August 1991, Reston, VA. I was in a pressed crowd some 30-40 yards from center stage waiting for Nine Inch Nails to take the stage. When NIN started the first notes of opening song the crowd surged and I was suddenly 3 to 4 people from the barrier at center stage, but something wasn't right. There was a mass of people under the feet of everyone some 10-15 yards from the barrier out. The band continued to play while we all worked to free everyone. I lifted a girl over the barrier for security to take her to first aid/paramedics. She was limp. I don't know what her fate was. The best way I can describe the push is: if you've ever been wading down the shore and a large breaking wave tumbles you. Except the wave was bodies. And you either tumble down to the bottom or scramble to get your head above the surface. I was a lean young man at the time, so I was lucky to not get crushed. Instinct had me scrambling up, not forward or pressing back. Since that event, and similar concert events/public spectacles after, I've developed a rather intense claustrophobia. I have nightmares where I'm either trampled and crushed or I'm trampling and crushing other people...sometimes it's loved ones. Thanks for letting me share this.
This is why I am NEVER, EVER going into overcrowded spaces. Being very reserved makes you realise how dangerous these places are if something is going to happen. We have seen too many crowd crushing and stampedes over the years.
I tend to avoid mass events for similar reasons and this channel, as well as my (limited) lived experience in this regard only strengthens me in this conviction
I’ve always been very careful about what buildings or events I attend because of how crowds can react. I saw one event when I was in school and I’ll never risk going into a crowded environment. People panic and then there’s no talking to them.
before I started seeing these videos, I never truly comprehend just how dangerous crush can be. I am more aware than ever now to avoid crowds and not trying to sqweze myself off bunches of people.
Crushes terrify me because they can stop if people just get control of their panic. The frequency with which selfishness or excitement over menial things causes the problem is scary.
Random thought: Radio and TV may have saved lives by allowing large numbers of people to hear important speakers in their own homes rather than in crowded public spaces.
Was the church demolished shortly afterwards? I can’t find any evidence of it on the internet now, but I’m wondering whether they kept on using it for some time after the stampede.
Staition night club fire. I think this channel did an episode on it. There was an outside crush in South korea, i think? More recently, at a concert outside.
I was at a concert in the front row once and the crowd started crushing. Security was pulling people out. I got pulled out but lost my purse. Had to call my dad for a ride home 😢 😭
My late grandmother and the two friends she was out with managed to avoid the Coconut Grove fire in Boston (nightclub was over crowded, but also some of the doors only opened in, there were no established exit routes, and just to add a little bit more, all the decor was very flammable) because they decided it looked too crowded that night. Some decent safety standards did come out of that mess. Like exit doors opening outwards (such a little thing that you just aren’t going to think about until you’re trying to open a door and you have a solid wall of panicked people behind you.) The hospitals in Boston were sent some of the very new, cutting edge “antibiotics”, which would have helped with some of the burn victims if anyone had known how to use it.
These are the kind of stories that scare me the most. Crowd surges and crushing. Oh my goodness, they make me shutter, the idea of a ball of bodies all smashed together and screaming and writhing in agony as they cry out in pain. No. No thank you. Gosh
The last line of this doco is very strange. Crowd crush events are almost as common as nightclub fires world wide. Having studied several of these events, it seems to me that we don't know enough about how bodies get tangled in these crushes. It is vitally important that such tragic events are documented in great detail, because I cannot see how one could recreate such a crush without putting live subject in peril. We really need to understand how these crushes build up, because rescuing people quickly is vital. If we learn how to map piles of dead and dying people it may be possible to save more of them. In particular, we may be able to develop a technique for removing a stuck person. I doubt that there will be a 'key log' that will unlock the pile, but there may be a 'recovery position' that makes it easier to pull someone out.
This is another reason why there are government regulations on how buildings are designed. The main doors for a stadium, church, school, store, etc need to swing out into the outside world, preferably with a crash bar rather than a door knob. That allows people to just push the door open and try to leave. The crash bar can't be locked from pushing open the door from the inside, it can only lock people on the outside from opening the door. There is a long history of people dying right at an exit, but the door can't be opened because it is locked or the crush of people prevent the door being opened (because the door swings into the building, not out into the hall or outside).
I thought about this too. The inability to make a sound loud enough to get the crowd's attention likely made things worse. Ironically, on a Sunday morning there may have been musicians with instruments like trumpets that could have made a difference...
So sad. Awful that it happened like that. Mr. Booker T Washington must have really been moved by what took place. Give him lots of credit for trying to calm the crowd.
Why ON EARTH was it not moved outside or to a venue that could accomodate the crowd. They HAD to know people would come from far and wide to hear him speak. Too hot to put that many bodies in a building anyway.
Without changes to the main entrance, an internal design that funneled different sections towards different exits could have made a huge difference here.
Knew it was going to be a crush as soon as he started describing the exit staircase. Describing exits is never innocuous on this channel. Also, that one looks like a death trap fr
I almost got caught in a crowd crush at invesco field. Sports authority bought it and i worked security. They had us do more thorough full body frisks. It took longer and resulted in the crowd pushing forward when the anthem started. I screamed in a panic and the crowd stopped amazingly, im convinced that if i didnt yell as loud as i did many would have died. I quit that day telling my manager i could no longer work for those owners as they lacked enough knowledge to run a sports venue.
Pro Tip: Avoid large crowds in confined spaces..........as nice as it would have been to see Booker T speak.....I would have read about it in the newspaper the next day.....
@@legitbeans9078well ill have you know, we get to say it with as much H as we want, because our ancestors beat your ancestors in a war (the french helped)
That entry gave me the heeby jeebies even before hearing the story. It's a funnel and the steps are totally unsupported by railings. i know it was way before the age of handicapped access, but, wvwn then, the elderly had trouble with those types of steps.
Don't the smaller doorways come from the need of defending against invaders? Churches and larger buildings were used for hiding and resisting war-invaders, and therefore the entries had to be tight. Right? Idk, I am honestly asking. Nowadays, as the world is getting better (unlike popular opinion), the entrances/exits are made larger and larger, to facilitate escape rather than blocking entry.
Maybe in medieval or Renaissance times, but not this late in history. To be fully honest with you, though, I've never heard of a church having to be fortified like that at any time in history. It was just castles and palaces and stuff.
This may have been the traditional reason for the entryway design, but I suspect that by the time this building was designed it was more a matter of tradition than anything else. Such an entryway would have been considered imposing.
I've done a few other videos covering crowd crushes... including some more recent ones. Here's the video I made a few years back about the Who Concert Crush in Cincinnati in 1979: ua-cam.com/video/PntgiGbnwNg/v-deo.html
You're summary at the end of the video is simply wrong. The crushes at Mecca continue to this day, even after several upgrades to the pilgrimage site. And they kill far more people.
Can you do the Travis Scott concert?
Freckleton Air Disaster.
Did you not like me saying that you were wrong in the video? And that people haven't learned from the past? And that crowd crushes are still going on?
Reasons why I avoided crowded areas or areas where the exit is hidden.
Crushes scare me more than a fire does. With smoke inhalation you pass out pretty quickly, but in a crush, you are stuck there, unable to breathe, twisted among all the other bodies and getting just enough air to prolong your suffering. It sounds absolutely brutal.
Claustro-nightmare
It might as well be walls closing in on you 😨
I once made my way to the front of the first concert I'd ever been to about 15 years ago (The Warped Tour). I quickly learned what a mistake that was and if it wasn't for a really nice man who helped me make my way out, I have no doubt I wouldn't have made it out. It's soo scary...
Those long dresses must have trapped those women, with all those people on top of them. I always wear shoes that I can break into a run with. No backless or high heels. Nowadays, you have to be careful & be aware of your surroundings.
(Parades, movies, marathons, restaurants, shopping, schools have all been crime scenes).
Agree with you. Once got caught in a crush in a tunnel at a rock festival. Wasn't for very long, but never again!! Nothing surpasses that feeling of panic, not being able to move or breathe!
So if you've ever wondered why you can be arrested for yelling "Fire!" in a crowded building when there is none, now you know.
Wrong, it is not illegal and you cannot be lawfully arrested. However, you will probably make the news and get banned from the theater
Actually, "fun" fact for the day: It is not by itself illegal in the United States to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater. No, really, it isn't. It has never been the law of the land in the US. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s opinion in _Schenck v. United States_ held it as an example of the limits of free speech, but it's never been settled law, and that case was overturned 50 years later in 1969, as part of _Brandenburg v. Ohio._ You _can_ hypothetically be arrested for making a false report of an emergency or, if people die, for involuntary manslaughter, but it is not a crime in and of itself to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
@hotelmario510, Just because you call something a fun fact that you know isn't true when you say it doesn't make it a fact.
That’s a myth actually.
Lmao this is the dumbest false belief that people still hold. IT IS NOT ILLEGAL TO YELL FIRE IN A CROWDED THEATER OR ANYWHERE ELSE!
Watching this channel has made me wary of being anywhere where there's an overcrowding of people, especially if it's not an open space (ie. it's inside a building, inside a fenced place, or the like.)
Completely understand, when I was younger I used to go to rock concerts and alcohol was served. Always put your girl in front of you while walking to or away from your seats because guys would take their perverse hand to play grab ass or worse. Bonner Springs Kansas at the used to be called Sandstone amphitheater.
You saw this was over 100 years ago, right? Touch grass!! 😂
@user-by7ti1fc7f crushes happen yearly. Find another way to tell us you're an a******.😂
@@PukeyMcDork You didn't hear about the Itaewon Halloween crush just a few years ago?
@@PukeyMcDork Crushes still happen, e.g., Astroworld
My brother's girlfriend died in the crush at The Who concert at Riverfront Stadium. Since then we're all careful. Too packed? Can't find the exits? Too far from the exit?Our lives aren't worth it.
did you watch the video he did on that?
I am old enough to remember that crush. Luckily we went to the Who Concert in DC instead. Sorry for your & the family's loss. 🥀
@@LetFreedomRing-tg1bf Thanks. I was 15.
I did. The band had no idea what was going on when they played.
I lost an elementary school classmate (by the time of the concert, we were attending different high schools). I think about him every December.
This is why I hate crowds.
This is why I hate people.
Just the view of a packed football stadium on TV is enough to give me the shudders!
Crowds are killers.
If large crowds aren't profitable today, they don't exist.
Yea I bet you're dodging fatal crowds all the time
/s
Uuugggghhh all of these disasters are awful but crushes are so so disturbing to me. A writhing stuck mass of panicked humans is just a horrifying and heartbreaking thought 💔
Over the years I have seen several news stories about crushes. It does not make sense when I see the people all over each other and I think, "Just get up!" Obviously, it does not work that way!
I'v read the story of the Great White concert in Rhode Island. There was a mass of people trying to get out of the door and became trapped, piled up on each other. Half in, half out, but the rescuers couldn't get them freed. They all died.
@@su-rv2uq makes it even worse considering the fire and the fact that some would have been burning alive too, unable to move or do anything but scream...
@@su-rv2uq I think footage of Great White was where I realized one cannot simply get up or in that case, get out (if I recall, many were standing up and could not make it out of the door due to being trapped).
Once panic sets in with a large crowd, it’s pretty much impossible to expect calmness. In an instant ppl have already made up in their minds that something terrible is happening and they need to get away from it
That's why theatres have a code phrase for 'building needs to be evacuated' so the word fire or whatever is never spoken but the staff hear it broadcast, know what's going on and prepare to evacuate the building before the public panic.
Perfectly stated
As much as people compare humanity to a pack, I also think we’re a flock of sheep. One gets spooked, the rest will react.
Additional fact: this historic building was demolished in 1927 to make room for the VA Hospital. The congregation has constructed a new building in a suburb of Birmingham. There is now room for only 1,000 people, so extra services were added to accommodate the large congregation.
Cool fact. I hadn't known this.
Ah I was wondering what happened to the church
Thank you for the follow-up. I wondered what happened to the building.
Thank you for the update but I am curious why they chose to demolish a relatively new building. The church was a stunning and beautiful embodiment of the richness and importance of the Pastor and the congregation only for it to be destroyed after 25 years. This saddens me as it was an important moment and significant reminder of how important it was for POC to have representation at the turn of the century.
@@NatureLover-62150 people died there and I'm sure there were painful memories for thousands of parishioners. Additionally, those caught in the crush on the stairs were likely convinced that the design was a deathtrap.
I’m a very tall individual and I always thought that if I was ever in a crush situation, I wouldn’t have to worry because I can still breathe above the crowd, until it happened to me. It wasn’t a crush situation, but it was a very congested event, it was a nightclub. It was Fort Lauderdale on Halloween night, we were all pushed together so close, I didn’t even think there was enough room to dance, it felt like the air was being pulled out of my body with how packed it was! Never wanna deal with that again, and I don’t encourage anybody to ever have to be an environment where they are in a crowd like that.
Frightened humans terrify me...which is why I am afraid of crowds...you just never know when something crazy can happen...
Also observe that every military in the world is built upon the concept of "frightened humans".
@clray123 lol what? No they're built upon the concept of force.
@@JWaititi The reason why you create military is that the population believes that they need protection from some external enemy. Hence it is frightened. Of course, in some countries the population is frightened of their own military (as it should be, given what any military can do to it).
What I love about your disaster content, Kristian, is that you cover so many relatively unknown, sparsely circulated, and more importantly, not hackneyed and done to death by a myriad of other UA-cam channels. Along with 'Mark Felton Productions', 'Paul Joseph Watson', 'Reading the Past (with Dr. Kat Marchant)', and 'Caitlin Doughty' (formerly, 'Ask a Mortician', you have long since remained in my top 5 go-to UA-cam channels, even towards the upper end of the spectrum of those, at that.
I tend to avoid crowded areas for the fear of something like this happening. I've never heard of this incident. Thank you FH for bringing this long-forgotten and historic disaster to light
Cry and cope.
@@theenzoferrari458 who hurt you?
Crush disasters are so scary, because they can escalate so quickly
I had a feeling that this would involve the world “fire”
Especially when the person yelled “It’s a fight.”
Heard Booker T and knew violence would be involved.
Or, "REALIZED", in crime UA-cam channels. It's driving me bonkers.
*word
Your comment has a tone of racism. @@TheoneandonlyJobis
There have been scores of crushes since. Some worse. The Cambodia bridge crush, the Mecca crush, and the Hillsborough and Peru stadium crushes. I am always looking for an escape route when I am in a crowd.
I have read aboutnthe Hajj crushes. With so many pilgrims, even those big special roads are not enough. Language barriers and national rivalries make the problem so much worse. I do not follow the Islamic faith, but I know the pilgrimage is important and it is so devastating to see those numbers and hear the personal stories. :(
There's been a couple Mecca crushes that have killed over a thousand people. I have only a base understanding of Islam, but I know one of the things Muslims do is make a pilgrimage to Mecca during the Hajj, which means hundreds of thousands of people are gathering in one place at the same time -- a recipe for massive crowd crushes. It's really sad that despite efforts at crowd control, deadly crushes can still happen, with one that claimed over two thousand lives happening as recently as 2015.
The station nightclub fire too
Just looking at the design of the church gave a massive sense of impending tragedy. And the death toll of 115 victims was utterly shocking
I suppose it was probably inspired by the biblical description of the Temple of Solomon
This could happen anytime anywhere. Overcrowded places are scary.
All crowds are scary. You can't control what others may do times however many people are there. And you can be sure that one in ten or more will panic which may set off an even larger percentage of panic. Always plan for your escape routes (plural) on the way in and consider that fire, smoke, or darkness from a loss of power may hinder you.
For my graduate ceremony this weekend, we were jam packed into a long narrow hallway followed by an even narrower staircase, with at least a thousand students all trying to leave the building after 5 sweltering hours burning in the sun. It was so dangerous that I remembered the lessons from this and similar channels, and was alert, keeping my eye out for emergency exits (there were almost none) and mentally preparing myself to brace my arms and protect my torso in case of a crush. Thankfully in the absence of emergency the sardine stream of students eventually escaped safely through narrow passages and up stairs, but wow that path is a disaster waiting to happen (and yes, it was the official exit we were told to use).
As a Southerner, I can totally see how those words sound the same... Our accent
Well, they would sound the same in a Northern accent, too, since Northerners would say the long "i" in both "fight" and "fire" in a relatively "closed" manner.
No matter where I go anymore, I check out where the exits are. Motel, restaurant, theater etc. Your videos always fascinate me. I so enjoy them. Thank you.
I started after seeing ‘The Towering inferno’
Same here, and I try to be close to an exit.
Me Too
With children always knew my responsibility to protect. We always had a plan
Even when Covid came. We protected our own safety.
You have to be responsible for self.
I'm in the UK. During Covid, the government reduced the hours that our supermarkets could open, and forced smaller shops to close. So instead of spreading the shopping across 24 hours, more intense crowds of people had to queue together and shop together within the reduced hours. The obvious result was simply to make the supermarkets MORE crowded. This was when I realised that the government's supposed 'prevention' strategies were nothing of the sort, and instead just an exercise in unthinking, blind compliance.
Well, the idea was the lane system, a one way trip around the main aisles, and then you could branch off to get to the aisle you wanted.
Of course, not only did nobody actually adhere to those rules, but there was nobody or no structure to enforce it bar a pathetic decal marked on the floor, with arrows and lines like road markings that were a mere suggestion to most people
Wait until you here that in the US and some other nations, such mandates have been deemed illegal, unconstitutional,arbitrary, oppressive and unnecessary. Good Lord..Fauci the douche admitted himself the 6 foot rule never had any scientific basis. And regardless of all that. ...only a moron would try to stop the spread of a disease sooooo dangerous it was the next coming of the Bubonic Plague 😏 by arbitrarily closing( again now ruled to have been illegally ) select businesses ...and not expecting the general public to accumulate ..no matter the size of the structure...into what businesses were "" allowed" to remain open. It was the stupidest thing I nay have ever witnessed. And people fell hand over foot for it.
It's been demonstrated over and over that in a panic, people try to get out the same way that they came in. This church had six exits. I'm sure that anyone remembering that fact got out just fine. It's extremely important to always know where all the exits are, and don't follow the crowd if there's an alternative way out. We've known for a long time how to prevent tragedies like this, but it still keeps happening, either through poor design or people simply not knowing to run away from the crowd if there are other ways out.
And that front entrance design seems like it wasn't made with elderly or disabled parishioners in mind, panic or no panic. It was a tragedy waiting to happen.
It was 1902. They didn't do special or accommodating, entrances back then.
I hadn't heard of this. Thank you for sharing the story.
There's nothing more terrifying than to be caught in a crowd crush so tight that bodies can't even fall. What a nightmare. Misheard shouting and a crowd is a receipe for disaster, can't imagine the PTSD survivors and witnesses went through afterwards.
Fascinating Horror is one of the best channels on UA-cam--reliably consistent, well-written and produced, and one of the BEST narrators around. Thank you for always delivering amazing content, FH!
I'm a native Georgian and had never heard of this. Terrible tragedy. And there are even more recent examples. Hate the thought of being in a big crowd like this.
Being in a church in Alabama would be torture
It is offtopic to ask this, but if s.o. says "I'm a native Georgian" - does it mean you are from Georgia (country) or from state of Georgia in USA?
Georgia is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the east. It is about 3,800 km by car from my home
Georgia also is a state in USA, about 7,500 km with an airplane.
I was at Charlotte Motor Speedway on sunday, sold out crowd of 95,000. After pre race ceremonies were over they told everybody to get up to their seats through the 3 small entries way through the catch fence. The 10,000 or so people who were down on the field were pushing themselves through the gate and almost started a crush. Later on in the evening, severe weather entered the area and they told the fans to leave their seats and get under the stands to take shelter from the lightning and rain. 95,000 people were either slipping down the aluminum stairs into each other, crushing each other to get outside through the small ticket gate, or trying to get to the bathrooms where people were squishing each other into the door. Absolutely insane what Sheep mentality will do to you if you aren’t careful.
That sounds like insanely poor planning and crowd control.
@@Elizabeth-n3v2u Definitely a trend here in the south. Most Speedways are like this given the 12 year stretch of people not going to races like they used to. Charlotte removed almost 60,000 seats because of low attendance.
Sheep mentality as you call it is a survival instinct. In sheep anyway. Human mentality would be more apt. I mean, these people believe in god. 🤦♀️
I was watching the race on TV and didn’t know about any of this. I am aware the reason they do this is in case of lightning but surely there’s a better, more organized way to get people to safety. Maybe “boarding zones” like they have on airplanes.
All due to 2 people without enough humanity to say "Excuse me" and "That's ok." Our social bankruptcy is not a new development.
That's what I was thinking! Two people couldn't recognize a genuine mistake on the part of either side! They couldn't even see the possible humor in the situation, given their overly crowded accommodations! The so-called generation of "manners and good grace" were not what they were cracked up to be!
@theresedavis2526 it's laughable that you think 2 people represent a whole generation.
@@chick_nuggs9318 No one is suggesting that it applies to everyone
no one really knows what started it. It is guessed at.
I say it ten times every time I go to wal mart
The horror is it wasn’t a fire, an emergency exit or even standard exit blocked or locked, it wasn’t a construction defect…it was just too damn many people. And it still happens even in this day and age, such as that Halloween event on that street in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Christian, there are certain of these tragedies that you are the most qualified person to outline and describe because of your huge sympathy and complete humanity when you share about them. I am always touched by the gentleness you use when you describe the experiences of the people who suffered survivors or victims. You have found your calling brother. I really appreciate you sharing your humanity and your care for human beings with us in this format.
This is why I avoid big crowds indoors. Well not this specific incident, but crowd rush & crush incidents are a bit too common 🤷
The moment I heard dooes being mentioned and thousands of people in the building, One word came to mind Instantly...
Crush
This event was very sad and it makes us lose faith in how people treat each other. It's unfortunate that things will never improve.
It's so interesting you went as far back as the 1902 for this crowd crush tragedy. That poor woman talking about how all she could do was wait, even though there were dead bodies on top of her was horrifying. The people who died standing up too .. Wow. Great video as usual.
Thank you for this video. I am African American and have never heard of this crush before. Your page is excellent for learning so much history.
Wow! My grandma was only 5 months old when this happened! No wonder I never heard of this! She obviously wouldn't be reading the newspapers back then!! LOL!! This is just horrible. What a very sad thing to come out of such a positive speech! I wish today we had speakers like Booker. He was powerful and changed so many lives for the better. A great man indeed!
I attended a wedding at a church with similar stairs leading up to it, though not beyond the door. Wisely, everyone uses what was once the back entrance, but I hope it's never so packed that they need both exits!
I can only imagine how loud it was in there.
My most traumatic event like this happened at Lollapalooza in August 1991, Reston, VA. I was in a pressed crowd some 30-40 yards from center stage waiting for Nine Inch Nails to take the stage. When NIN started the first notes of opening song the crowd surged and I was suddenly 3 to 4 people from the barrier at center stage, but something wasn't right. There was a mass of people under the feet of everyone some 10-15 yards from the barrier out. The band continued to play while we all worked to free everyone. I lifted a girl over the barrier for security to take her to first aid/paramedics. She was limp. I don't know what her fate was.
The best way I can describe the push is: if you've ever been wading down the shore and a large breaking wave tumbles you. Except the wave was bodies. And you either tumble down to the bottom or scramble to get your head above the surface. I was a lean young man at the time, so I was lucky to not get crushed. Instinct had me scrambling up, not forward or pressing back.
Since that event, and similar concert events/public spectacles after, I've developed a rather intense claustrophobia. I have nightmares where I'm either trampled and crushed or I'm trampling and crushing other people...sometimes it's loved ones.
Thanks for letting me share this.
This is why I am NEVER, EVER going into overcrowded spaces. Being very reserved makes you realise how dangerous these places are if something is going to happen. We have seen too many crowd crushing and stampedes over the years.
I tend to avoid mass events for similar reasons and this channel, as well as my (limited) lived experience in this regard only strengthens me in this conviction
@rilmar2137 wtf does this mean
I’ve always been very careful about what buildings or events I attend because of how crowds can react. I saw one event when I was in school and I’ll never risk going into a crowded environment. People panic and then there’s no talking to them.
This happened in my state and my city, and I have never heard of this disaster. So shocking and sad. Thank you for sharing.
I can just imagine panicked people trying to navigate through the funnel of the main entry and then down all those steps. What a tragedy!
Already intrigued, thanks for the upload!
Yes..🧐Intrigued indeed.
Things like this make me very wary of being in large crowds of people.
before I started seeing these videos, I never truly comprehend just how dangerous crush can be. I am more aware than ever now to avoid crowds and not trying to sqweze myself off bunches of people.
This was incredibly horrifying.. humans dead while standing..
Love how the pastor was a financial beneficary of the church being built.
So much for hard work and faith.
Crushes terrify me because they can stop if people just get control of their panic. The frequency with which selfishness or excitement over menial things causes the problem is scary.
Random thought: Radio and TV may have saved lives by allowing large numbers of people to hear important speakers in their own homes rather than in crowded public spaces.
Was the church demolished shortly afterwards? I can’t find any evidence of it on the internet now, but I’m wondering whether they kept on using it for some time after the stampede.
Someone else said it got demolished and replaced by a VA hospital years later.
Ain’t nobody got time for dat.
Staition night club fire. I think this channel did an episode on it. There was an outside crush in South korea, i think? More recently, at a concert outside.
The concert was at Astro world.
I was at a concert in the front row once and the crowd started crushing. Security was pulling people out. I got pulled out but lost my purse. Had to call my dad for a ride home 😢 😭
Interesting! I've lived in Birmingham most of my life and haven't heard about this before
Chaos, drama and violence is all these people are. Still today. Nothing has changed
My late grandmother and the two friends she was out with managed to avoid the Coconut Grove fire in Boston (nightclub was over crowded, but also some of the doors only opened in, there were no established exit routes, and just to add a little bit more, all the decor was very flammable) because they decided it looked too crowded that night. Some decent safety standards did come out of that mess. Like exit doors opening outwards (such a little thing that you just aren’t going to think about until you’re trying to open a door and you have a solid wall of panicked people behind you.)
The hospitals in Boston were sent some of the very new, cutting edge “antibiotics”, which would have helped with some of the burn victims if anyone had known how to use it.
Yeah, it brings to mind that crowd crush that happened in South Korea last year.
Was In OCT 2022.
@@Kyusslegion okay
@@grapeshotokay? Get your sh17 straight when commenting about a subject 😂😂😂
@Skills4J00 yeah I said okay you're the one that's having a meltdown over it😂😂😂😂
@@Skills4J00 clean your basement incel gamer😂😂😂
There was a crowd crush in hajj in Saudi Arabia several years ago
I think the Hajj season is the most crowded event ever
Good video. Historical events and places covered are always interesting.
These are the kind of stories that scare me the most. Crowd surges and crushing. Oh my goodness, they make me shutter, the idea of a ball of bodies all smashed together and screaming and writhing in agony as they cry out in pain. No. No thank you. Gosh
Washington: Everyone should work together to uplift each other.
Two random idiots: And we took it and this chair personally.
Thank you for sharing. I had never heard of this.
The last line of this doco is very strange. Crowd crush events are almost as common as nightclub fires world wide.
Having studied several of these events, it seems to me that we don't know enough about how bodies get tangled in these crushes. It is vitally important that such tragic events are documented in great detail, because I cannot see how one could recreate such a crush without putting live subject in peril.
We really need to understand how these crushes build up, because rescuing people quickly is vital. If we learn how to map piles of dead and dying people it may be possible to save more of them.
In particular, we may be able to develop a technique for removing a stuck person. I doubt that there will be a 'key log' that will unlock the pile, but there may be a 'recovery position' that makes it easier to pull someone out.
I'm so surprised I haven't heard of this.
Before watching this channel I was often scoffing at safety rules. Now I follow them meticulously.
Whatever became of the church building?
"Death loves a crowd. Death seeks out the crowd"
Thank you for noting "speaking at a different event." So many of these historical videos allow for misunderstanding with similar footage.
Always look forward to watching a Tuesday morning video from FH
This is another reason why there are government regulations on how buildings are designed. The main doors for a stadium, church, school, store, etc need to swing out into the outside world, preferably with a crash bar rather than a door knob. That allows people to just push the door open and try to leave. The crash bar can't be locked from pushing open the door from the inside, it can only lock people on the outside from opening the door.
There is a long history of people dying right at an exit, but the door can't be opened because it is locked or the crush of people prevent the door being opened (because the door swings into the building, not out into the hall or outside).
I had heard of this before but i forgot about it. I do live in Birmingham, AL. Never learned about it.
I wonder if a PA system would have made it easier to calm people. I wonder if they were using speaking trumpets.
I thought about this too. The inability to make a sound loud enough to get the crowd's attention likely made things worse. Ironically, on a Sunday morning there may have been musicians with instruments like trumpets that could have made a difference...
Never heard of this before.
you missed that Atomic Twister also had Mark-Paul Gosselaar aka Zack from Saved By The Bell
So sad. Awful that it happened like that. Mr. Booker T Washington must have really been moved by what took place. Give him lots of credit for trying to calm the crowd.
Panic spreads faster than fire.
Very sad indeed, but at least as God fearing Baptists they all went to Heaven.
Why ON EARTH was it not moved outside or to a venue that could accomodate the crowd. They HAD to know people would come from far and wide to hear him speak.
Too hot to put that many bodies in a building anyway.
Without changes to the main entrance, an internal design that funneled different sections towards different exits could have made a huge difference here.
I can't explain the whiplash I got upon knowing it was "Fight" instead of "Fire" and the end result being 115 deaths...
Knew it was going to be a crush as soon as he started describing the exit staircase. Describing exits is never innocuous on this channel. Also, that one looks like a death trap fr
I'm from Alabama and never heard of this story before. 😟
People are dangerous.
Those _people_ are.
I almost got caught in a crowd crush at invesco field. Sports authority bought it and i worked security. They had us do more thorough full body frisks. It took longer and resulted in the crowd pushing forward when the anthem started. I screamed in a panic and the crowd stopped amazingly, im convinced that if i didnt yell as loud as i did many would have died. I quit that day telling my manager i could no longer work for those owners as they lacked enough knowledge to run a sports venue.
Crowd crushes scare the hell out of me
Pro Tip: Avoid large crowds in confined spaces..........as nice as it would have been to see Booker T speak.....I would have read about it in the newspaper the next day.....
Tragic episode in a great man's epic journey to economic and spiritual liberation.
this channel is why I heard glass pond in my head at the last convention I was at.
Man this channel covers a lot of crowding accidents. I didn't realize that there were so many instances of it.
Thank you for covering this disaster FH.
Here in Alabama, the last syllable of Birmingham is pronounced like the food: ham. Oink Oink 🐷
Well its named after the city in england where the h is silent, so its you guys that are saying it wrong 😜
Ya have to add that special southern twang! 😂
@@legitbeans9078well ill have you know, we get to say it with as much H as we want, because our ancestors beat your ancestors in a war (the french helped)
The authorities knew the entrance design contributed to this tragedy. Wow, never heard of this.
That entry gave me the heeby jeebies even before hearing the story. It's a funnel and the steps are totally unsupported by railings. i know it was way before the age of handicapped access, but, wvwn then, the elderly had trouble with those types of steps.
I'm old and stodgy. I'm unattracted to high occupancy crowds.
Don't the smaller doorways come from the need of defending against invaders? Churches and larger buildings were used for hiding and resisting war-invaders, and therefore the entries had to be tight. Right? Idk, I am honestly asking.
Nowadays, as the world is getting better (unlike popular opinion), the entrances/exits are made larger and larger, to facilitate escape rather than blocking entry.
Maybe in medieval or Renaissance times, but not this late in history. To be fully honest with you, though, I've never heard of a church having to be fortified like that at any time in history. It was just castles and palaces and stuff.
This may have been the traditional reason for the entryway design, but I suspect that by the time this building was designed it was more a matter of tradition than anything else. Such an entryway would have been considered imposing.
@@k.c1126 Yes, I meant originally in history the doorways were narrower for protection, and then continued out of repetition.
Fear makes the human’s selfish nature come viscously to the surface, for all to see.
It’s a church it’s an amazing speaker, what a different outcome if one of those two combatants had just smiled and said “sorry friend”.
This was a really serious event, and I grew up in the South. Why have I never heard of this?
Cos you is white.