At 4 19am on january 18 1978 downtown hartford narrowly missed being the site of one of the deadliest disasters in american history when the entire roof of the hartford civic center arena covering an area of nearly 2 5 acres and weighing 1 400 tons suddenly collapsed onto a coliseum of 10 000 empty seats.
Hartford whalers roof collapse.
The roof was rebuilt in 1980 bigger and better and still rests unbending atop the same four columns in what is now the xl center.
As originally built in 1975 it seated 10 507 for hockey and served as the home of the then new england whalers for three years.
Hartford civic center roof collapse jan 16 2014 at 3 00 am on january 18 1978 the civic center roof collapsed six hours after the university of connecticut defeated the.
In the early morning of january 18 1978 the weight of snow from the day s heavy snowstorm caused the civic center s roof to collapse.
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Design flaws were blamed for the collapse.
The hartford whalers were an american professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in hartford connecticut the club played in the world hockey association wha from 1972 until 1979 and in the national hockey league nhl from 1979 to 1997 originally based in boston the team joined the wha in the league s inaugural season and was known as the new england whalers throughout.
Following the roof collapse which took place just three years and nine days after the building opened the whalers took up temporary residence in springfield mass where members of the 91 club.
As originally built in 1975 it seated 10 507 for hockey and served as the home of the then new england whalers for three years.
Hartford whalers final whalers goal kevin dineen.
The nhl s hartford whalers temporarily moved north on i 91 to the springfield civic center while repairs were undertaken.
The columns are 12 feet higher allowing more seats.