Most Deadly Industrial Accident in U.S. History

The worst industrial accident in U.S. history (in terms of casualties) occurred on April 16, 1947 in Texas City, Texas (a town about forty miles southeast of Houston). This was a time when many people did not pay attention to hazardous materials or risk assessment, at least not anywhere near today's levels. Two ships, the Grandcamp and the High Flyer, combined forces and created a scene most people wouldn't even imagine. This was an event that resulted from "complacency about hazardous materials; the close physical proximity of docks, petrochemical facilities, and residences, and an absence of preparation for a serious industrial emergency" (Stephens, 1997, p. 1).

It was about 8:00 a.m. on April 16, 1947 when longshoremen had started loading the last 100-pound packages of ammonium nitrate fertilizer into the cargo hold of the Grandcamp. As they began loading the packages, someone saw smoke rising from between the floorboards of the ship (Stephens, 1997, p. 1). Even though fire extinguishers were used on the fire, the fire kept on burning. At about 8:30 a.m., things continued to get worse as pressure began to build up within the cargo hold. The people on the ship tried stifling the fire by closing up the cargo hold, but this would prove to be a bad decision (p. 2). At 9:00 a.m., flames could be seen rising from the open hatch. Approximately two dozen firemen from the Volunteer Fire Department fought the flames. They sprayed streams of water onto the deck, but the deck was so hot that the water literally vaporized. People from all over Texas City saw a gold-colored column of smoke rising hundreds of feet into the air. Then, just ten minutes after 9:00 a.m., the Grandcamp exploded and sent a shockwave through the small Texas town (pgs. 2-3). Towns as far away as Galveston, Texas were rocked by the monstrous explosion where windows were shattered and people were knocked to the ground. People as far away as Houston could see a huge mushroom cloud rising over a mile into the atmosphere. People within just feet of the ship were completely vaporized while deaths and injuries occurred within a mile radius of the explosion (p. 4). A plant, which was just across a body of water from the ship, was torn apart and two hundred thirty four of the five hundred seventy four workers were killed (p. 39). Also, a majority of the onlookers within one thousand feet of the dock who had gathered nearby to see the gold-colored smoke perished (p. 37). To make matters worse, the blast created a fifteen-foot wave of water and it swept the Grandcamp ashore. The wave carried dozens of dead bodies with it (p. 36).Pieces of the ship (some weighing in at several tons) fell from the sky and caused extensive property damage and casualties throughout Texas City. Falling shrapnel ripped open storage tanks holding flammable liquids. These liquids came in contact with fires that had been started by the explosion and caused more fires (p. 39).

It had been several hours since the Grandcamp explosion. The town's medical clinics were filled by the injured. Since the town did not have a hospital, doctors and nurses came from surrounding communities to treat the injured (Stephens, 1997, p. 56). Also, several state troopers came from surrounding facilities to maintain order (p. 59). So, just as things were beginning to stabilize, another disaster was about to ensue.

Just when everyone thought things couldn't get any worse, a ship called the High Flyer (loaded with a thousand tons of ammonium nitrate and sulfur) was torn from its moorings and came to rest near another cargo vessel. In the late afternoon, a couple of men searching for injured people on the High Flyer saw flames coming from one of the holds. They reported this to someone on the dock, but many hours passed before anyone realized the threat that the High flyer posed. It was at about ten minutes after 1:00 a.m. on April 17^th that it exploded (Stephens, 1997, pgs. 4-5). Some people believed that this explosion dwarfed the Grandcamp explosion. Only a small number of people were killed this time because most of the people had moved a safe distance from the docks (p. 83). Still, even more structures were damaged or destroyed because burning shrapnel fell from the sky and opened a number of crude oil tanks. These oil tanks caught fire and set a number of structures on fire (p. 84).

To this day, no one is exactly sure how many people perished in the Texas City explosions. The Red Cross and the Texas Department of Public Safety came up with four hundred five identified dead and sixty three unidentified dead. Another one hundred people listed as missing were listed as such because their remains were never found. It is believed the people listed as missing had been completely obliterated by the explosion (Stephens, 1997, p. 100). Property damage was estimated at about one hundred million dollars, or about seven hundred million dollars in today's costs (p. 103). To put this into perspective, one-third of all the homes in Texas City (1,519) were condemned after the disaster (p. 6).

There were many factors that led to the Texas City explosions. First of all, the citizens and public officials failed to recognize that ammonium nitrate fertilizer was highly explosive when combined with intense heat. As a matter of fact, there were no special handling instructions before the Texas City disaster. After the incident, laborers said that the fertilizer was placed in the same class as cement and flour when it was shipped. As a matter of fact, bags of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate were shipped on railway boxcars. Any outside factor could have set the fertilizer on fire and exploded the trains. After being removed from the boxcars, they were taken to a warehouse by a lift truck. After being temporarily stored in the warehouse the bags were transferred to a vessel (Stephens, 1997, pgs. 20-21).

It is apparent that many individuals who handled the fertilizer were not even slightly aware of the risk that the ammonium nitrate fertilizer posed. W.H. Sandberg, who was vice-president of Terminal Railway when the accident occurred, asked a representative of an army ordnance plant if the fertilizer was explosive and the representative said it wasn't. This couldn't have been further from the truth. Ammonium nitrate is an oxidizing agent and it can catch fire or explode when conditions favor it. If the fire was burning in a confined space, extreme heat and pressure buildup would occur causing an explosion. This is the scenario that played out on the Grandcamp (Stephens, 1997, pgs. 21-22).

A second factor that led to the explosions was poor communication between the public officials of Texas City. It was reported by a survivor of the Texas City disaster that the chief of Texas City's Volunteer Fire Department had likely been aware of the fact that ammonium nitrate was highly explosive. Unfortunately, this information never made it to Terminal Railway officials (Stephens, 1997, p. 24). Had this information been circulated, safety practices would have been greatly expanded.

A third factor that led to the disaster was the fact that there were several petroleum refining and chemical production structures present near the waterfront. These facilities contained large amounts of highly explosive chemicals. It should also be noted that petrochemical facilities and docks were too close to each other as well as to residential areas (Stephens, 1997, p. 10).

It is not surprising that the entire Texas City mess led to a lot of research and publicity. Within months of the disaster, the U.S. Coast Guard started a conference so that the dangers of handling the fertilizer could be discussed. The commandant of the Coast Guard said that the ships had to "obtain a permit to load more than five hundred bags of fertilizer and then only at locations remote from concentrations of population or industry." Also, "the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) amended rail and motor carrier regulations to require the yellow label for explosives on any product containing substantial amounts of nitrates." Finally, a committee of five people was formed so that an "investigation into the properties and behavior of ammonium nitrate and its derivatives" could be carried out (Stephens, 1997, pgs. 108-109).

Source:

Stephens, H. (1997). The Texas City disaster, 1947. Austin: University of Texas Press.