A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Kingston, Jamaica, around 3:30 PM, collapsing buildings across the capital and triggering fires that raged for days through the wreckage since water mains had also been destroyed. More than 1,000 people died and the disaster prompted a wave of international relief, notably from U.S. Navy ships whose assistance sparked diplomatic friction with British colonial authorities wary of American influence.
The quake struck in mid-afternoon, giving little warning. Masonry buildings throughout Kingston, then a densely built colonial port city, crumbled instantly, and the collapse ruptured gas lines and knocked over lamps, igniting fires that swept through commercial districts already choked with rubble and trapped survivors.
With the water system destroyed, firefighters had almost no way to combat the flames, and blocks of the city center burned uncontrolled for several days. Estimates of the dead ranged past 1,000, an extraordinary toll for a city of roughly 60,000, and thousands more were left homeless in the tropical heat.
American naval vessels under Rear Admiral Charles Davis arrived quickly to help, landing sailors to fight fires and distribute aid, but the British colonial governor, alarmed by armed U.S. servicemen operating within his jurisdiction, controversially asked the Americans to leave, causing a minor diplomatic incident even amid the humanitarian crisis. The earthquake remains one of the deadliest natural disasters in Caribbean history and permanently reshaped Kingston's built environment, prompting new building codes intended to prevent such catastrophic collapse in future tremors.