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N0KFQ > TODAY 16.04.16 15:13l 49 Lines 2305 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 90887_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Apr 16
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<F1OYP<F4DUR<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 160416/1407Z 90887@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1947
Texas City explodes
At 9:12 a.m. in Texas City's port on Galveston Bay, a fire aboard
the French freighter Grandcamp ignites ammonium nitrate and other
explosive materials in the ship's hold, causing a massive blast
that destroys much of the city and takes nearly 600 lives.
The port of Texas City, a small industrial city with a population
of about 18,000, was teaming with chemical plants and oil
refineries that provided steady, good-paying jobs for much of the
town. In the industrial sector, minor accidents and chemical
fires were rather commonplace, and many stood around the port
casually watching the reddish orange blaze that broke out on the
Grandcamp early on a Wednesday morning. Twenty-seven members of
the Texas City Volunteer Fire Department were called out to douse
the flames, but the ship was so hot that the water from their
fire hoses was instantly vaporized.
At 12 minutes past nine, the fire caught the freighter's stores
of ammonium nitrate, a compound used to make dynamite, and Texas
City exploded. Wood-frame houses in the city were flattened,
additional blasts were triggered at nearby chemical plants, and
fires broke out across the city. The mushroom cloud from the
blast rose 2,000 feet, and fragments of the Grandcamp were hurled
thousands of feet into the air, landing on buildings and people.
The ship's anchor, weighing 1.5 tons, was flung two miles and
embedded 10 feet into the ground at the Pan American refinery.
The explosion was heard as far as 150 miles away.
Devastating fires burned for days, and on April 17 the freighter
High Flyer, also loaded with nitrates, exploded, further
devastating the port and causing a new string of explosions at
nearby plants. Fortunately, most of Texas City's population had
been evacuated by then, and the city's losses were primarily
material. By late in the day on April 18, emergency crews had the
situation under control. Some eyewitnesses said the scene was
worse than anything they had seen in Europe during World War II.
The Grandcamp explosion was the most devastating industrial
accident in U.S. history, with 600 people killed and more than
3,000 wounded.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-Mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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