List of disasters in New Hampshire by death toll

Aftermath of the Canaan train wreck (1907)

This is a list of known disasters that have occurred in New Hampshire, organized by death toll. Historically documented events that caused 10 or more deaths are included.

List

Notes:

• Some of the events occurred prior to New Hampshire becoming a U.S. state.
• Acts of war are generally excluded, such as the French and Indian Wars, although specific localized events, such as the Raid on Oyster River, are included.
• Some of the events occurred in the Atlantic Ocean, at varying distances from land (such distances, when known, are provided via footnote).

Year [a]	Event	Type	Death toll	Location	Sources
1918	Spanish flu pandemic	Disease	3,907	statewide	[1]
2020	COVID-19 pandemic	Disease	2,972	statewide	[2]
1694	Raid on Oyster River	Massacre	104	Durham	[3]
2012	2012–2013 flu season	Disease	44	statewide	[4]
1893	Strafford County Farm fire	Fire	41	Dover	[5] [6]
1941	Sinking of the USS O-9	Shipwreck	33	off Portsmouth [b]	[7]
1968	Northeast Airlines Flight 946	Aviation accident	32	Etna	[8]
1907	Canaan train wreck	Railway collision	26	Canaan	[9]
1939	Sinking of the USS Squalus	Shipwreck	26	off Seabrook [c]	[10]
1689	Raid on Dover	Massacre	23	Dover	[11]
1689	Raid on Huckins' Garrison	Massacre	18	Dover	[12]
1689	Raid on Sandy Beach	Massacre	16	Rye	[13]
1696	Raid on Portsmouth Plain [d]	Massacre	14	Portsmouth	[14]
1881	Strafford County Farm fire	Fire	13	Dover	[15]
1938	1938 New England hurricane	Weather	13	statewide	[16]
1944	Army Air Force B-24 crash	Aviation accident	10	Epsom	[17] [18]

Disasters with incomplete information

The New Hampshire death tolls for these regional events, which are known to have caused 10 or more deaths in the neighboring state of Massachusetts, are currently lacking.

• 1896 Eastern North America heat wave – caused the deaths of at least four people in Nashua, ^{[19] [20]} and about 1,500 people in total
• 1911 Eastern North America heat wave – caused the deaths of 380 to 2000 people in total

Disasters not included

These notable events are not included in the main list, but have some association with New Hampshire.

• In April 1963, the USS Thresher (SSN-593) departed from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, ^[e] and sank off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, resulting in the loss of 129 lives. ^[21]
• In July 1973, Delta Air Lines Flight 723 crashed while attempting to land at Logan International Airport in Boston, resulting in 89 fatalities; the flight originated in Burlington, Vermont, and made an intermediate stop in Manchester before the incident. ^[22]

Disasters at notable locations

These events at notable New Hampshire locations had multiple fatalities, although fewer than 10, thus are not included in the main list.

• In August 1826, a landslide near Willey House at Crawford Notch in the White Mountains resulted in nine deaths. ^[23]
• In September 1967, eight passengers were killed and 72 injured after a locomotive of the Mount Washington Cog Railway derailed and a passenger car slid several hundred feet into a large rock. ^[24]

See also

• List of accidents and disasters by death toll
• List of natural disasters by death toll
• List of disasters in Massachusetts by death toll
• List of disasters in the United States by death toll

Notes

1. For continuous multi-year events, the year in the year column represents the initial year of the event, unless otherwise noted.
2. Approximately 15 miles (24 km) off Portsmouth.
3. Approximately 10 miles (16 km) off Seabrook.
4. See also New Hampshire historical marker 75 in Portsmouth.
5. Whether the island that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is located on lies within Maine or New Hampshire has been a point of contention between the states; see Piscataqua River border dispute.

References

1. "1918–1920 — Influenza and Pneumonia Pandemic". usdeadlyevents.com. January 1918. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
2. "New Hampshire coronavirus cases and deaths". usafacts.org. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
3. "The Davis Garrison: Surviving the Massacre" (PDF). NH.us. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
4. "2012-13 Influenza Season | Summary Report for New Hampshire | September 30, 2012 – May 18, 2013" (PDF). NH.gov. New Hampshire Department of Health & Human Services. p. 7. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
5. "Fire at the Insane Asylum". dover.nh.gov. Dover Public Library. July 15, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2025. The insane asylum was burned to ashes, and forty-one of the forty-four inmates were cremated
6. "Bodies Taken From Ruins". The Boston Globe . February 11, 1893. p. 1. Retrieved September 25, 2025– via newspapers.com.
7. Kennedy, Eric R. (September 1991). "Forgotten Tragedy: The Loss of the USS 0-9". usni.org. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
8. Ranter, Harro. "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
9. "Head-on Collision at West Canaan". Annual report of the Railroad Commissioners of the State of New Hampshire (63 ed.). 1907. pp. 345–355 – via HathiTrust.
10. "Sailfish I (SS-192)". history.navy.mil. Naval History and Heritage Command . Retrieved September 24, 2025.
11. Robinson, J. Dennis (1997). "Cochecho Massacre". Seacoast NH History. www.seacoastnh.com. Archived from the original on January 14, 2010. Retrieved July 6, 2010– via Wayback Machine.
12. Thompson, Mary (2009). Landmarks in Ancient Dover, New Hampshire. Heritage Books. p. 180. Retrieved October 26, 2025.
13. Baker, Emerson (2024). The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England. Macmillan + ORM. Retrieved October 26, 2025.
14. Charlton, Edwin (1856). New Hampshire as it Is. In Three Parts. Tracy and Company. pp. 42–43. Retrieved October 26, 2025.
15. "The Almshouse Fire". The Providence Evening Press. January 8, 1881. Retrieved October 12, 2025– via Google Books.
16. "1938 hurricane was the worst natural disaster to strike New Hampshire, new study finds". The Center Square . November 18, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
17. "Identify 10 N.H. Plane Crash Victims". The Lewiston Daily Sun. AP. April 26, 1944. p. 2. Retrieved October 12, 2025– via Google Books.
18. "Accident Consolidated B-24H Liberator 42-5111". flightsafety.org. Retrieved October 12, 2025.
19. Shalhoup, Dean (July 25, 2020). "The heat is on – we're having a heat wave (maybe) – but don't expect a repeat of Aug. 4-13, 1896". Nashua Telegraph . Nashua, New Hampshire . Retrieved September 27, 2025.
20. "Fourth Heat Death in Nashua". Biddeford Daily Journal. Biddeford, Maine. August 13, 1896. p. 2. Retrieved October 8, 2025– via newspapers.com.
21. Bentley, John (1975). The Thresher Disaster: The Most Tragic Dive in Submarine History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. ISBN   0-385-03057-6.
22. Buell, Spencer (July 28, 2023). "Fifty years later, families reflect on Logan plane crash that killed 89 people" . The Boston Globe . Retrieved July 29, 2023.
23. Purchase, Eric (1999). Out of Nowhere: Disaster and Tourism in the White Mountains . The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN   978-0-8018-6013-3.
24. Turner, Robert L. (September 18, 1967). "N.H. Probes Cog Rail Crash; 8 Dead Identified, 72 Hurt". The Boston Globe . p. 1. Retrieved August 3, 2024– via newspapers.com.