River of Ruin - The Cuyahoga River Fires

Episode 113

For decades, the people of Cleveland watched their river catch fire—and barely seemed to care.

In this special two-year anniversary episode of Crime to Burn, we dive into the astonishing history of the Cuyahoga River.

Long before the Environmental Protection Agency existed, the Cuyahoga River became a dumping ground for oil, industrial waste, sewage, and chemical runoff. The result? A river that burned not once, but at least thirteen documented times.

But the burning river is only half the story.

As pollution worsened, Cleveland embarked on an ambitious effort to secure cleaner drinking water by constructing massive offshore intake tunnels beneath Lake Erie. What followed was a decades-long saga of explosions, cave-ins, toxic gas, decompression sickness, fires, and rescue attempts that claimed dozens of lives.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why the Cuyahoga River kept catching fire
• How industrial pollution transformed a waterway into a recurring fire hazard
• The deadly construction of Cleveland's offshore water tunnels
• The 1916 tunnel disaster that killed nineteen workers
• Garrett Morgan's heroic rescue efforts using an early gas mask
• The massive 1952 river fire that became one of the largest in American history
• How a photograph of the wrong fire helped spark the environmental movement
• The surprising recovery of a river once considered biologically dead

What happens when a city becomes so accustomed to disaster that a burning river feels normal?

Join us as we examine one of the most remarkable environmental and industrial stories in American history—a tale of flaming waterways, deadly engineering projects, political indifference, and a river that ultimately helped change the nation.

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Inner Sanctum Acknowledgments:
Eternal gratitude to our Inner Sanctum patrons, Melanie Curtis, Jenny Mercer, Laura Pisciotta, and Jason Wolfe for helping us bring light to the stories others would rather leave in the ashes.

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

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SOURCES:

• Bellamy, John Stark. Cleveland's Greatest Disasters! 16 Tragic True Tales of Death and Destruction: An Anthology. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers, 2009.
• Boissoneault, Lorraine. "The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times, but No One Cared Until 1969." Smithsonian Magazine, June 19, 2019.
  Smithsonian Magazine Article
• Dubelko, Jim. "The 1916 Waterworks Tunnel Disaster – Twenty Clevelanders Die Four Miles Out in Lake Erie." Cleveland Historical.
  Cleveland Historical Article
• "River Burned 13 Times and Changed the Nation Forever." Wild Versus YouTube Channel, January 4, 2025.
  Wild Versus Video
• "U.S. River Burned for Over 100 Years – You Won't Believe How It Recovered." Make Tech Future YouTube Channel, February 4, 2026.
  Make Tech Future Video

Source for the bonus story at the end:

• "Replacement Window." GoFundMe Campaign.
  GoFundMe Page