156 stories
Fires, floods and disasters in Estonia
156 fires, floods and disasters in estonia, each tied to the real place where it happened or is told, county by county. See them on the map →
Harju County
- Great fire of Tallinn 1433
- Toompea fire 1684
- Plague in Tallinn 1710
- St Olaf's Church fire 1820
- Sinking of the Rusalka 1893
- Männiku ammunition depot explosion 1936
- June deportation 1941
- Kautla tragedy 1941
- Bombing of the Eestirand 1941
- Soviet evacuation of Tallinn and Juminda minefield 1941
- March bombing of Tallinn 1944
- Klooga camp massacre 1944
- March deportation 1949
- Hirvepark meeting 1987
- Song of Estonia festival 1988
- Baltic Way 1989
- Defence of the TV Tower 1991
- Kurkse tragedy 1997
- Copterline helicopter crash 2005
- Bronze Night 2007
- Rotermann granary fire 1930
- Shooting down of the airliner Kaleva 1940
- Kalevi-Liiva massacres 1942
- Prangli boat disaster 1969
- Baltic Station train accident 1980
- St Nicholas' Church fire 1982
- Estonian Drama Theatre fire 1983
- Two airmen lost over the Jägala range 1935
- Trains on fire at Kopli freight yard 1941
- Plague out of the town pharmacy 1571
- Kings and emperors in the Tallinn roads 1908
- The emperors' last meeting at Paldiski 1912
- Charles Leroux's last parachute jump over Tallinn Bay 1889
- Wolves come over the sea ice to Kakumäe 1917
- Two paper balloons at the Estonia garden 1901
- Eighteen people adrift on an ice floe off Tallinn 1912
- The crows who moved out of the Dome Church spire 1892
- The Christmas blizzard that emptied Kose church 1913
- Leesi fishermen carried out to sea on the ice 1927
- Fire in St Olaf's small tower on confirmation day 1925
- An Air Force plane makes a forced landing at Paldiski 1929
- Estonia's worst railway crash so far, at Endla Street 1928
- The September storm that scattered Prangli's fishing fleet 1926
- Tallinn's Russian Market turns into a lake 1930
- Kino Endla burns down by the Baltic Station 1933
- The last resettlement ship for Germany leaves Tallinn 1940
- Naissaar seal hunters scattered by a March storm 1936
- Swedish scholars dig into the ruins of Pirita convent 1930
- Salmistu fishermen carried out to sea on the ice 1935
Hiiumaa
Ida-Viru County
- Great fire of Narva 1659
- Vaivara concentration camp 1943
- The secret 'paint factory' and its radioactive pond 1947
- The artificial mountain that burned inside 2012
- A salmon river turned black 1930
- Kiviõli's ski slope of oil-shale waste 1975
- Two miners found dead in the Estonia mine 2015
- A bear with a sheep under its arm at Kauksi 1905
- The bear that shamed the barons near Sonda 1913
- Smallpox in the Kreenholm mill town 1888
- The great fire of Narva, April 1919 1919
- The bear hunt at Sonda 1929
- A boat goes over the Kreenholm falls 1927
- Lake Peipus floods Vasknarva 1924
- Peipus fishermen carried off on the ice to the Soviet shore 1928
- A steamer runs down a motor boat on the Narva river 1929
- The night the sea rose at Purtse and Eisma 1938
- A Stone Age harpoon in the Tõrvala diatomite pit 1939
- Explosion at the Kohtla shale-oil works 1930
- Lightning burns the Kuremäe convent cowshed 1938
- Fourteen hours adrift on Lake Peipus 1939
Järva County
Jõgeva County
- Peace of Kärde 1661
- Põltsamaa church and castle in flames 1941
- Minus 43.5 at Jõgeva 1940
- The burning of Uue-Põltsamaa mill and the farmers' grain 1915
- Seventy houses burn in an hour at Kükita 1911
- A bear on the road home at Rääbise 1857
- Mustvee's Lutheran church burns like a candle 1939
- Arab silver dug up at Põltsamaa 1939
Lääne County
Lääne-Viru County
Pärnu County
- Independence Manifesto read in Pärnu 1918
- Kilingi-Nõmme school fire 1937
- Storm flood of 1967 1967
- Pärnu methanol poisoning 2001
- Storm Gudrun flood 2005
- Charles XII lands at Pärnu 1700
- Siege and plague of Pärnu 1710
- Pärnu's record cloudburst 2026
- When Pärnu's powder tower blew up 1533
- A forest fire takes Tõstamaa parsonage 1858
- Hundreds of fishermen adrift on Pärnu Bay 1911
- The squall that flattened Pärnu's bathing huts 1927
- Kihnu seal hunters adrift on the ice 1931
- Storm floods Pärnu beach and shakes the Nahksild bridge 1935
Rapla County
Saaremaa
- November storm of 1969 1969
- Kuressaare learns to build in stone 1700
- The giant hail of Sõrve 2023
- Two girls and a man against a wolf at Pihla, Karja 1864
- Professor Hausmann digs the Kalmumägi grave at Oriküla 1889
- Twenty-nine people adrift on the ice to Kesselaid 1861
- Ruhnu's winter of drifting ice and trapped steamers 1927
- Four Kuressaare boys lost on the sea ice 1939
- Ruhnu's mailmen cross the drifting ice to Saaremaa 1940
Tartu County
- Destruction of Tartu 1708
- Great fire of Tartu 1775
- Peace of Tartu 1920
- Midsummer fire at Tartu Cathedral 1624
- Armoured train collision near Elva 1925
- Bombing of Tartu 1943
- The night the university's great hall burned 1965
- Utochkin flies over Raadi 1912
- Ice walls at Nina 2025
- A bear attacks a child at the Tartu market 1928
- Goods trains collide at Tartu station by the Riga bridge 1927
- Digging for armoured fish at Tamme 1939
- The magnetic pavilion on Toome Hill burns in the snow 1931
Valga County
Viljandi County
Võru County
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