The aim of this article is to interpret the Mattmark disaster through the concept of “risk society” coined by the German sociologist Ulrich Beck. Although at the epicentre of the great disasters of hydraulic and hydroelectric infrastructures of the twentieth century, the collapse of the dam was seen neither through the category of environmental risk, nor through the concept of danger for society. By the time major oil disasters occurred on the coastline, the concept of “risk society” emerged and was utilized as the paradigm to interpret such tragedies.