WEBVTT - Selects: The Texas City Disaster of 1947 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:04.560 Hey everyone, it's me Josh. For this week's SYSK Selects. 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:09.039 I've chosen our episode on the Texas City disaster. In Texas, 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:13.600 they do everything bigger, including industrial disasters. In this episode 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.200 from March of twenty twenty one, we cover one of 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.919 the biggest explosions in American history, made up of not one, 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:24.279 but two huge blasts that leveled the refinery poortown of 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:27.120 Texas City. I hope you find this one as riveting 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:27.720 as we did. 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:41.240 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.320 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.840 there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there, 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:50.599 and this is stuff you should Know. 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.840 I was about to say natural disaster edition, but unnatural 0:00:58.880 --> 0:00:59.720 disaster edition. 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:01.840 Industrial disaster is what they call these. 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:03.640 Yeah, human caused. 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:05.800 In fact, from what I saw what we're going to 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.320 talk about today, the main thing we're talking about today 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:13.160 is the largest industrial disaster in United States history. 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:15.280 Still oh still huh? 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.960 Yes, what seventy almost seventy five years. 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.240 On Man's sad. This is a big one. 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.800 Yeah, everything about this was really big, but in basically 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.480 all the wrong ways. We're going to talk today about 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:35.280 a disaster called the Texas City explosion, and sadly you 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.960 might say which one, because there's been multiple massive explosions 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.440 in Texas City. And one of the reasons why is 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.800 because Texas City has made a name for itself as 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:53.560 one of the premier petrochemical ports in the United States 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.680 and indeed possibly the world. I think it was up 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.000 until World War Two it was like the fourth largest 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.040 port in Texas, but I think since World War Two 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.400 it's grown even more. And I know for a little 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:09.400 while there, BP had a refinery that was its most 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:14.040 profitable oil refinery in the world, which is really saying something. 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.600 I mean, that's a big deal. BP's an enormous company 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:21.600 with multiple refinery so you know, for the biggest one, 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:24.200 the most profitable one to be in Texas City. That 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.640 kind of put Texas City on the map in some circles. 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:30.679 Yeah. So Texas City is above the Gulf of Mexico, 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.720 and like you said, it's a port town founded in 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:37.840 the late eighteen hundreds by some Minnesota hunters and they said, 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.600 you know what, I think we can set up shop here. 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:42.360 I think we can dig up a canal, set up 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:44.799 a rail line. Yeah, we've got some really good deep 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:46.960 water and we could be a good shipping port. 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.400 I want to know how they, like what conversation led 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.600 to that, Like what hunting trip ends up in you 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.800 basically building a port town in a city that's about 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:58.799 as far away from your home as you can get 0:02:58.800 --> 0:02:59.880 in the same country. 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.839 Yeah, I mean there were some real go getters, I guess. 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:08.880 Yeah, I guess. So they couldn't just kill animals. 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:13.280 Right, God, So that's what happened to Texas City. I 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.520 mean that's how it was kind of founded. And it 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:20.000 was a I think refineries, think warehouses and chemical plants. 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:25.200 World War two comes around and the military, of course says, well, 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.519 we'll be sort of controlling this area for a while 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.679 because it's a pretty valuable port for us, and we're 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:34.280 gonna ship munitions in and out of here. World War 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.960 two comes and goes, and then after the war, about 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.040 a year and a half after the war, it is 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.280 run by civilians again. And let's just say that it 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:47.520 was a little more of a relaxed scene than it 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:49.240 was when the military was running the show. 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.240 Yeah, the military ran it like a tight ship basically, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.240 And yeah, there's just a big difference between when the 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.280 military is running a port and when a port's run 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.000 by just a whole bunch of different private companies, you 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:06.240 know what I'm saying, Minnesota hunters exactly. So that's not 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:10.280 to say it was just some lucy goosey place or 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:14.800 anything like that, but just comparatively speaking, And one of 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.120 the other things that Texas City had going against it 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.359 on the morning of April sixteenth, nineteen forty seven, is 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:24.560 that there weren't really a lot of standards and regulations 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.719 for handling chemicals, and then we didn't have an enormous 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:34.320 grasp on just how chemicals worked at that time, and 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.440 so all of these things kind of came together. Is 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.520 kind of slightly lax oversight and just kind of much 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:45.839 more relaxed attitude toward cargo, and then a lack of 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.119 awareness about just what kind of dangers different cargoes pose 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.120 just kind of set things up for to take a 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:51.719 bad turn. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.080 Yeah, So on the morning of April sixteenth, there were 0:04:56.160 --> 0:05:02.240 three ships docked in the port, was most notably the 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.919 SS Grand Camp, which was it was it was a 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.920 military ship at one point, but I think we gave 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:14.039 it to France as like a Hey, sorry, Europe is 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.440 kind of destroyed. Why don't you take this ship and 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:19.320 just use it for whatever you want to do. And 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.240 it was converted to a cargo ship, yeah, which is 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.160 which it was on the day of April sixteenth, and 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.960 it was beside the SS high Flyer, And that was 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.440 beside the third one named after somebody. 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.960 What was that one, the Robert Keene or the William Keene. 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.120 Oh wait a minute, which one was it? 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.880 Well, it was the Wilson B Keen even better. 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:44.760 Right, the Billy Keen as they called it. 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:47.520 Yeah, And I believe all three of those were liberty ships, right. 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.560 Yeah, they were World War Two ships and they were 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.080 I think the SS high Flyer was being fixed at 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.240 the time but was still loaded down with stuff, as 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.640 was the Grand Camp and sort of detail what was 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:03.760 in the cargo because it's all very very key. 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.359 Yeah, it's really important. So for five days leading up 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:10.080 to April sixteenth, Steve doors I think that's how you 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.520 say it, but basically dock hands. I don't know why 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.520 you wouldn't just say dock hands, you know, but the 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.440 Steve doors Man, I hope I'm saying that correctly, Chuck. 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.080 They had loaded up the Grand Camp with twenty three 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:28.839 hundred tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, and these were in 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.479 one hundred pound paper sacks, akin to the kind of 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:37.160 sex that you would buy like Portland cement in these days. Right. Yeah, 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.160 there were some other cargo, sisle twine, peanuts, There was 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.239 some machinery, there were some cotton. There was sixteen cases 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:48.800 of ammunition, I think, like for small arms ammunition. But 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:52.279 for the most part it was a lot of ammonium nitrate. 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.120 And the same went for the SS high Flyer too, 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.120 which as you said, was in the next berth. It 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.280 was loaded with a thousand tons of ammonium nitrate and 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:05.240 then also very crucially two thousand tons of sulfur, and 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:07.359 all of these were also in those same one hundred 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:11.120 pound paper bags. So at the time, like I was saying, 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:15.000 people didn't realize like this is this is a it 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:16.800 was a big deal that there was that much ammonium 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.400 nitrate just sitting around in this port at that time. 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.280 Yeah, it's a it's a crystal like solid. It's white. 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:29.720 A lot of times it's used for nitrogen for agricultural fertilizer, 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.720 but if you combine it with fuel oils. It can 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.000 be very explosive and actually used for that for like 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.640 mining and construction and stuff like that. But it's not like, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.280 you know, if you tap the side of the bag 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.120 it's going to explode. It's pretty safe as long as 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:48.560 it's all in the up and up and it's being 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:53.679 stored properly. But if it starts to absorb moisture, then 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.320 it's sort of like Portland cement again, it's just going 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.160 to harden to a block, right, and then if that 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.040 thing is in a solid block, it's going to be 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:03.840 just a little bit more volatile and a little bit 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:05.440 more dangerous if ignited. 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.520 Yeah, And I mean like it's not even considered flammable 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:10.960 as far as I know, and certainly in nineteen forty 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.400 seven it wasn't considered flammable because if you walked up 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.920 to some of this ammonium nitrate these pellets and just 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.840 held a lighter to them, they wouldn't catch fire. That's 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.920 not really what they do. What they do is they 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.880 oxidize things. They basically create free radicals, like we talked 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.760 about in the free Radical episode, which sets off like 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:35.640 a chain reaction, and because they oxidize, they concentrate and 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:40.000 condense and produce basically oxygen where it was an otherwise present. 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.040 When when that that is combined with the fire, it 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.280 makes a big time fire. So that's bad enough, right, 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:50.960 Like if you set them off like it'll it'll combust, 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.000 or it'll help something else combust more efficiently and more 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.600 more at a higher temperature. But the problem, the big 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.000 problem with ammonium nitrate is there is a point where 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:04.280 it can reach a high enough heat that it itself 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:09.200 decays and degrades, and when that happens, it splits into 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:13.560 two gases, nitrous oxide and water vapor, which you're like, well, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.040 that's that's great. You know, you just get super duper 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.280 high off of one and the other one just makes 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.280 you a little moist. Maybe so, maybe so in small 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.920 enough amounts. But when this happens in a large enough amount, 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:30.800 especially when this ammonium nitrate is in one big melted block, 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.320 the chain reaction can happen much more efficiently. And when 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:39.840 those gases are are produced, when the thing decays and separates, 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:45.760 they expand really quickly, and that produces an explosion. And 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.800 the force is the energy that's released from an explosion 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.440 of ammonium nitrate decaying and converting into nitros oxide and 0:09:53.440 --> 0:10:00.439 water vapor is monumental, like compared to atomic bomb blast. Basically, 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:02.960 if you have enough of it, say twenty three hundred 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.080 tons and a thousand tons and a couple of ships 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:06.080 to sitting in port. 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.000 All right, that's a great place for cliffhanger. 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:10.440 I think. I think so too. 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:42.400 All Right, we'll be right back after this. All right. 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:47.800 So this stuff, the cargo arrived by train to Texas City, 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.240 and it was probably already heating up a little bit 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.800 on this train and maybe already getting to the point 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.280 where it was a little i don't know about unstable, 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.960 but volatile at least. And the it gets transferred to 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.600 the ship, it continues to sort of heat up, and 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.800 the crew and everything, like you said, there wasn't a 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.880 lot of awareness about kind of anything like this at 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.880 the time, So to them it was just another cargo hold. 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.120 They might have said, like, you know, be careful with 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:19.640 this stuff, guys, or maybe not even that, Yeah, but 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.320 they definitely didn't know, like heat bad for this stuff. 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.000 Yeah, they said, you owe me two bucks from lunch yesterday. 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.080 That's what they said when they were loading this up. 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:32.520 So around eight am in the morning, these workers there 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:35.880 started noticing that there was smoke in vapors coming out 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:38.720 of the ship. So there was some kind of a 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.000 fire going on. No one knew how it started or 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.120 what happened. There are some people anecdotally to say it 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.960 was a cigarette, was not in the could have been 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.679 that wasn't in the official report, which also wouldn't be surprising. 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:53.760 Well, what I saw I saw it later on Chuck 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.240 that the fact that these things were in those paper sacks, 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:00.280 that if they were heating up, they were just going 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.680 to continue to heat up. Being packed tightly in the 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.480 hold of this unventilated ship, they were just going to 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:08.880 get warm and warmer. And it's possible they that the 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:13.240 ammonium nitrate caused the paper sack to combust, catch fire, 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:17.800 spread to other paper sacks, and then you had a 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.600 positive feedback loop where it just kept getting The fire 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.160 kept getting bigger and bigger, and crucially very important, hotter 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:24.640 and hotter. 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.800 Right, So the captain sees this happening. There are people 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.920 kind of pouring in and looking around at what's going on. 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:37.080 The captain says, batten down these hatches, pull theice tarps 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.600 over him, and start pumping steam in there, which apparently 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.360 was a method at the time to put out a 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.199 fire on a ship when you didn't want to ruin 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.240 the cargo, as opposed to just blasting it with a 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.680 fire hose, which would cause all this stuff to just 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.840 brick up like Portland cement. He starts pumping steam in there, 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.400 and that just started heating. You know, everyone knows steam 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:01.319 is going to heat up, So that just started and 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.960 the moisture made a bad situation a lot worse really quickly. 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.680 Yeah, I get the impression that had The captain's name 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:13.760 was Captain Charles de Guiabon. He had he made the 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.040 decision to just go ahead and let the cargo be 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.720 ruined and have the fire put out with fire hoses. 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.880 This all might never have happened, but it was. And 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.400 I mean, I understand where he was coming from. He 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:27.280 didn't want to ruin the cargo if he didn't have to, 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.280 because steaming out of fire aboard a ship was an 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:35.720 accepted firefighting technique. It works, and it could conceivably save 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.000 a lot of the cargo. So it's not like he 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:42.839 just made this ridiculous, stupid mistake. It's just in hindsight, 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.520 it was probably the decision that led to this catastrophe. 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:49.360 Yeah, I mean, I think more than anything, it's like 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.280 you said, it was the time when there was not 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.400 much regulation and sort of in the dawning of the 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.559 chemical age, people just didn't know right. 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.040 And Plus also at the time, Texas City had a 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:05.319 volunteer fire department, which I would guess wouldn't have quite 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.040 as much jurisdiction and could be told by a captain 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.480 like no, no, no, I just go away, like I'm 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.319 going to handle this myself, rather than being like, no, 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.120 we're going to put the fire out on your ship. 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.200 Yeah, it's a good point. So the steam is making 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:25.680 things worse. It pumped into the holds and everything's heating up. 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.360 Everything's getting moist and like we said, moisture is no 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.320 good for this stuff, and it did. It started to 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.400 convert to these solid masses and you know, there's going 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.400 to be gas releasing and it's building up all this 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.120 pressure because they had battened down the hatches and covered 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.640 them with tarps, and it so much so that it 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:43.680 blew these hatch covers off at about eight thirty in 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:44.080 the morning. 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:48.600 It's crazy. Just that alone would have been spectacular and 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.120 I'm sure it was. But when those hatches blew off, 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.960 all the smoke that had been kind of stuck in 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:59.160 the hole inside the ship started billowing out. And the 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.640 thing apparently about ammonium nitrate burning is it produces really 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:07.320 kind of mesmerizing colored smoke. From one of the witnesses, 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:11.320 it was apparently salmon orange and purple. And so this 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:15.600 smoke coming out of it started to attract people like 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.600 onlookers who were like, what's going on. I want to 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.720 go see this giant, weird fire that's going on down 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.880 at the port, And something like three hundred people, including 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:31.120 entire families, kids from the local school came over. All 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:32.880 sorts of people just kind of stopped what they were 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.680 doing and came to watch this weird fire at the port. 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:40.320 And apparently KGBC out of Galveston, which is just ten 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.760 miles down the coast out in the Gulf of Mexico. 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.000 They were warning people to stay away, but apparently that 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.320 just alerted more people that there was something going on 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.800 who went down to go check it out themselves. 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:55.960 Yeah, so they knew that there was a big problem. 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.800 At this point. They did call the firefighters in and 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:00.920 the tugboat to maybe try and get that thing out 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.320 of there. And at this point, like you said, the 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.360 heat was just so great that even a fire hose 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.320 isn't going to do much. It's kind of just vaporizing 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.200 when it hits it. Yeah, that's crazy because of the 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.440 massive amounts of heat. And then you know, this whole 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:16.400 thing started at eight At eight thirty is when the 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:21.760 hatches blew, and then at nine to twelve the thing exploded. 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.840 And we're going to kind of list through a pretty 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:31.840 horrifying list of impacts from like distances, like a seismograph 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.160 in Denver, Colorado picked up this explosion. 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:42.280 Yeah, and this is again in the southernmost part of Texas, right. 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:44.920 Yeah, like they felt it in Louisiana, you know, like 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.640 three thousand foot fire bombs and cargo flying up in 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:50.040 the air. 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.280 So yeah, the enormous amount of energy that I was 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:55.440 talking about that was released by this twenty three hundred 0:16:55.480 --> 0:17:00.280 tons of ammonium nitrate in retrospect, I think as been 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.080 the I saw it compared to a two point seven 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:09.359 kiloton blast, which would put this blast of this ship 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.200 blowing up at somewhere on the order of about one 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:17.400 third no, I'm sorry, one fifth of the Hiroshima nuclear 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:21.439 bomb which just completely leveled that city. This was about 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:25.280 a fifth that size, so it was still a really substantial, 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:28.040 enormous blast. And one of the first effects that had 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.320 is that it blew this Liberty ship, this huge World 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:35.000 War Two era cargo ship, a couple thousand feet into 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:40.040 the air in multiple pieces to just shower out downward 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:45.359 as hot metal shrapnel onto the surrounding city. And that's 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.480 not accounting for the shrapnel that immediately blew outward as 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:53.440 those gases expand expanded right into all of those onlookers 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.560 and the people who are fighting the fire around the port. 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.120 Yeah, there was They had a couple of two ton anchors. 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:01.840 One of those went about a mile and a half 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.760 away in the air. Like we said, you could feel 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:09.320 it in Louisiana. There was a Monsanto and a Union Carbide, 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.199 two different chemical plants kind of right beside it. They 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.080 were just flattened, basically just not even there anymore. 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:17.879 Yeah. I saw that one of the warehouse's Warehouse zero 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:19.800 at the port, which is I think the one that 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:24.080 was closest to the ship. This historian from Houston, I 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.879 think said that it just disappeared like it was just gone, 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:29.520 like it wasn't there any longer. Like the word disintegrate 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.600 works in a lot of the instances when you're describing 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.240 what happened to a lot of the structures and people 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.280 who were around this blast. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.040 Well, yeah, I mean that's the obvious thing. You know, 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.399 there were hundreds of onlookers, there were people that worked there, 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.360 There were all twenty eight members of the fire department. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.560 They were all killed basically instantly. Anyone within that zone 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:56.439 was killed instantly. Some people, like you said, just not 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:00.240 even able to recover enough body parts to add enough 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:01.160 i humans at that point. 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:03.119 Yeah, that proved to be a real problem. So, like, 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.560 first of all, the fact that the entire fire department 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.000 apparently one There was one survivor from the fire department, 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:11.640 but he was out of town at the time, That's 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.080 why he survived. But the whole fire department and all 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.320 of their equipment was immediately wiped out. One of the 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.200 problems was with an explosion like this in a place 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.679 like this is that it ruptures lines and pipes and 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:28.000 all of those petrochemicals that are being refined suddenly catch fire. 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.760 So now you have these out of control fires in 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.560 the buildings and structures that are left standing and you 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.120 no longer have a fire department or any fire equipment 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.040 to put it out for a little while. So the 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:44.760 immediate impact outside of the blast was also the fires 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.720 that were lit just right after this too. 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:52.080 Well, I mean you've got you know, you've got the 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.320 metal shrapnel, but then you've also remember there were peanuts 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:57.680 and twine and cotton and all this stuff. So that's 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:02.560 these are like fireballs being launched, basically starting fires all 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.159 over the place. It wasn't just in the immediate area. 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.040 And like you said, because the fire department was then 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:10.719 out of commission's that's real trouble. 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.159 Yeah, So it took a little while for more aid 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.800 to show up. But apparently this explosion was so bad 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:22.160 and the catastrophe was so great the Army, Navy, Coastguard, Marines, 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:27.200 Texas National Guard, and then firefighters from surrounding cities all 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:29.919 came out to help man. And this wasn't just like 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.520 putting this chemical fire out, but also like trying to 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:37.879 you know, rescue people from rubble. Like there's really a 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.480 lot that we could sit here and say, but if 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.520 you have a computer in front of you, like just 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.439 look up pictures from the Texas City explosion of nineteen 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:53.720 forty seven. It's just unreal what happened to like enormous 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:57.280 steel buildings just turned into like twisted metal. And this 0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:59.440 is like, you know, the middle of a work day. 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:03.320 So there were people trapped all over the place in 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:08.439 this debris. So there was a huge rescue operation that 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.119 had to start, but it was delayed because most of 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:14.160 the people who were tasked with that kind of thing 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:17.000 had all been killed in the initial blast. 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.240 Yeah. So remember earlier we said that there were three 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:26.639 ships there. This one blows up, and obviously, you know 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:29.840 it's a full on like nine to eleven seen at 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.840 this point, with just how chaotic it is, people are 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:38.200 not noticing that right next door, the SS High Flyer 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:42.480 also remember, was loaded with this stuff and also with 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.400 sulfur which makes it become unstable, and this thing had 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:49.679 been unlodged. I mean, I'm surprised. It's just the integrity 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.760 of these ships is the only reason that those weren't 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.399 just blown to bits too. Like it was kind of 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.600 right next to it and it was still intact at least, 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.760 and it was from its mooring zoe and drifted over 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:05.360 and kind of attached itself to the Wilson be Kin, 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.399 which was again in the slip next to it, and 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.000 I think there were some crew members aboard in there 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:15.240 that I guess were just protected by that thick steel. 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:17.640 Right, yeah, from what I understand, And. 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:19.159 They were kind of still doing their things for a. 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:22.399 Little while, and they were finally because the High Flyer 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.880 caught fire as well, they were finally forced out by 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:29.679 the smoke. Because this is some noxious, noxious smoke. This 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.280 isn't I mean, this isn't just like wood burning smoke. 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:34.880 This is some really bad chemical smoke that can mess 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:37.520 you up. It's crazy that these sailors stayed aboard for 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.359 an hour but they're finally forced off a ship. But 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:43.160 they tell people like, hey, this is on fire. Eybody's 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:45.760 like have you seen the other problems we have over here? 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:50.720 And the fire apartment just got basically vaporized. So the 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:54.520 fire was allowed to continue on the high Fire for hours, 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:57.480 hours and hours like that. Blast happened at nine to 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:02.040 twelve am, and it wasn't until the afternoon that somebody 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:07.560 else rediscovered the fire aboard the High Flyer and started 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:11.840 to kind of like raise the alarm about this. Still 0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:15.080 this is such a chaotic scene that there wasn't anything 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:18.320