Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Texas City Disaster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

We moved from to Texas City in 1952 when I was 4 years old just 5 years after the disaster. I remember my dad telling me, "They don't follow the fire truck here. It still ranks as the largest man made disaster in U.S. History. You can't count 911, that was an act of war.

In 1900 the U.S. largest natural disaster, the 1900 Galveston hurricane hit, killing as many as 8,000 or more people. Galveston is just 6 miles across the bay from the Texas City Dike.

Was it coincidence or an act of God that the largest natural disaster and the largest man made disaster happened within 6 miles of each other?

Just bad luck

As a firefighter, I remember seeing training videos on the Texas city disaster in my younger years but its been awhile though. Quite impressive.
If I remember correctly, that all started with a fire on a cargo ship that was carrying fertilizer. What a mess. We have been very fortunate those stories haven’t happened more frequently.
Bad luck l guess.

It's been a long time since I read the book (The Texas City Disaster,1947, by Hugh Stevens) but it's very interesting. As I recall, it was considered an industrial accident and remains the largest to date with the most lives lost. They didn't get an exact count on those killed because some were literally blown to pieces, but best estimate was in excess of 600.

2200 TONS of ammonium nitrate. 580 people dead. Damn.

Tim McVeigh's Oklahoma City bomb was less than 3 tons. I've seen beaver dams blown by a small drink bottle of the stuff. Hard to imagine 2200 tons.

There's a big ships anchor in a memorial park a half-mile from the explosion. It weighs 5 tons:

https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMWT8N_Anchor_Park_Texas_City_TX

I think that the ship’s explosion set off other explosions within industries nearby.

I think that’s right.

This 2-ton anchor was thrown more than 1.6 miles when the Grandcamp exploded. WOW!

Used to go over to Dock 1 where the Grand Camp blew up. It was kind of eerie. Friend of mine's dad was the Texas City fire chief and was standing there along with most of the TC firemen, when it went up. Worked with several guys who lost their dads in it.

The ammo ship explosion in Port Chicago CA during WWIII.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/port-chicago-disaster

The Roseburg OR blast, wife parents lived just outside of town at the time.

https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/roseburg_blast/#.XpjQZByJKM8

I looked it up, what I read was, two ships with ammonium nitrate.

They used to show that real gory film to us at work years ago but some people freaked out over it and they quit. I found it on the internet and watched it, pretty gory. That kind of stuff will keep you awake at night.

Fighting fires is a dangerous business...

I remember a friend of my dads worked around Texas City in the 70's. Said they were doing some excavating for a new plant of some sort. They had been digging down for a basement when someone struck a large piece of steel buried there. Not knowing what it was they had to stop digging and have someone come check it out. After some investigating, it was determined to be from one of the ships. Whether it was from the Grandcamp or the High Flyer he never did find out. My grandfather worked somewhere down around Houston at the the time and I remember his stories of hearing and feeling the blast.

Dave