I grew up ten, and after a move, five miles south of the Houston Ship Channel, which, for many miles, is lined with refineries and petrochemical plants.
Explosions and fires were not uncommon, maybe a couple per year. We soon learned to ID the plant with the problem by its emergency siren/whistle -- because each plant had a unique signal or fire alarm.
The loudest explosion I remember was when we lived ten miles away from the site at the Ethyl Corporation -- just upstream from the Shell refinery / chemical plant. An empty (except for gasoline fumes) barge exploded one night, and the shock wave rattled us in our beds -- ten miles away. IIRC, a welder cut into the fume-filled barge with a cutting torch... :-(
Most of the plant fires were confined to a single processing unit or storage tank; scary, smoky, (and visible from five miles away aross the coastal prairie) but not massive or with dozens of casualties...
TXnMA
