SS Noronic destroyed by fire in Toronto Harbour with the loss of at least 118 lives #maritimehistory

SS Noronic was a passenger ship that was destroyed by fire in Toronto Harbour in September 1949 with the loss of at least 118 lives

It took just minutes for the S. S. Noronic, "The Queen of the Lakes," to erupt into a blistering inferno that lit up the late-summer Toronto night in the early hours of September 14, 1949, sixty-three years ago this week. In just a couple of hours the racing, white-hot fire had claimed more than a hundred lives and gutted the ship, leaving the warped metal hull of the vast ship resting on the bottom of the shallow lake bed.

In the aftermath, the ship's crew, dangerous design, and lack of safety features would come under harsh criticism from the public and federal investigators. As a result of the disaster many old passenger ships would be forced out of service on Lake Ontario.

The Noronic disaster remains one of the deadliest incidents in the history of Toronto.

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