The whole Corpus Christie Fire Department got killed by an explosion of a ship loaded with ammonium nitrate. The anchor for the ship weighing 700 pounds landed over a mile away. Just harmless fertilizer. Hope these guys are being real careful.
That was the Texas City explosion in 1947 when the SS Grandcamp detonated followed about 12 hrs later by the SS Highflyer.
Probably the best summery was the book “City on Fire.”
One reason for the high death toll was that it (Grandcamp) had burned for some time before detonating and a lot of the town folk walked down to the docks to watch the show.
Harmless fertilizer isn’t. Just ask the folks in Oklahoma City.
CC
Great Texas City Explosion.
It was a Volunteer Fire Dept from the Petrochemical Plant which responded. My mother’s aunt was married to one of those who perished. Interesting story.
An aunt of my mother’s aunt, known as ‘Crazy Aunt Ethyl?’ (I forget) was attending the wedding reception of my great aunt and her husband. When wedding gifts were being handed out, somebody had provided them with a wedding gift of a Carribean Cruise.
The ‘crazy aunt’ insisted her niece and new husband not partake of the gift as she had previously had a dream of his demise soon after their wedding. She was said to have a spiritual gift of seeing how people would pass away, which she considered a curse. In her dream, she could see him descending into a deep body of water, looking up at the surface and drowning.
All at the wedding tried to calm her down, but she wouldn’t stop until they swore not to go on the cruise.
About a week or so later, he was playing poker with his buddies, when the group came upon the idea to go out deep sea fishing for their following week’s poker date. All were going to go to sea, but the dutiful newlywed lamented that if he joined them, he would never hear the end of it. One of the other players mentioned he wanted to go, but he had Volunteer Fireman duty which precluded his attndance. They decided the newlywed would swap shifts with him, so his buddy could go fishing, while he would use the opportunity to keep out of trouble and temptation.
When the volunteer duty approached, he got the call to respond to a smoldering fire on the ship in the Texas City harbor at the pier as it was loading up with ammonium nitrate. They responded in the early morning putting out a fire on the pier, but it appeared some of it has spread to an open hold in a ship being laden with ammonium nitrate.
They were called back again, as the outside of the hull was warming up and smoke emanating from the hold. They began by cooling down the ship for a half hour or so, when the contents detonated in what has become to be known as the Great Texas City Explosion on 16Apr1947.
They didn’t find the volunteer firemen, but a couple of weeks later a body washed ashore, identified by dental records as that of the newlywed.
The strange thing, was that the crazy aunt’s dream appeared to come true, as the coroner determined he had died from drowning as he had froth in the lungs. So even when attempting to escape one’s appointed time, it catches up with you.