Texas City Explodes: 600 Die in America's Deadliest Industrial Disaster

The French cargo ship Grandcamp exploded in Texas City harbor at 9:12 AM on April 16, 1947, detonating 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer with a blast that remains the deadliest industrial accident in American history. The explosion generated a fifteen-foot tidal wave that swept across the harbor, shattered windows forty miles away in Houston, and hurled the ship's one-and-a-half-ton anchor more than a mile inland. Nearly the entire Texas City volunteer fire department was killed instantly. They had been fighting a fire in the ship's hold that had been burning since early morning. The chain of events began when longshoremen noticed smoke rising from the Grandcamp's cargo hold around 8:00 AM. The ship's captain, Charles de Guillebon, ordered the hatches sealed and steam pumped into the hold, a standard firefighting technique that was exactly wrong for ammonium nitrate, which decomposes at high temperatures and can detonate under confinement. Spectators gathered on the dock to watch as the ship emitted an unusual orange-brown smoke. At 9:12, the Grandcamp exploded. The initial blast was catastrophic but not the end. The explosion set fire to the Monsanto chemical plant adjacent to the docks and showered the nearby cargo ship High Flyer, also loaded with ammonium nitrate, with burning debris. Rescue workers rushing to the scene of the first explosion were caught when the High Flyer detonated sixteen hours later at 1:10 AM on April 17, creating a second massive blast that destroyed what the first had left standing. The combined explosions killed nearly 600 people and injured over 3,500. The disaster led to the first class-action lawsuit against the United States government, with 8,485 claims filed. A federal district court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding the government negligent in its regulation of ammonium nitrate, but the Fifth Circuit reversed the decision and the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. Congress eventually passed a special relief act providing $17 million in compensation. Texas City rebuilt, but the disaster prompted sweeping reforms in the handling and storage of hazardous industrial chemicals.