Texas City Explosion

[ajf1060]

I work as an operator in a plant where we make 1500 tons a day of this stuff....CF Industries. An explosion at our plant would be multiple times the size of this one...and this one was massive. Not to mention it would release about 30,000 Tons of Anhydrous Ammonia...which is a deadly gas. Luckily we have a great plant with many safety features.

[mbntexas217]

My grandfather was one of the firemen who were killed--I have a picture of him sitting in the new fire truck, taken 3 days before the disaster. It's eerie to watch this, knowing I'm watching him die. The Discovery Channel had a full length documentary on this with original footage back in the early 90's. Don't know if they still "own" it or not.

[letseeitplease]

ok while i am typeing this,i just got an email from the galveston daily news, that texas city marathon plant has a hydrogen leak in progress for everyone to shelter in place and some of the area near the plant has been evacuated,yes texas city is real,gotta love it to be here,anybody know of a place here on the web that we can watch full length video of the 1947 texas city disaster?

[Kulumuli]

America has great engineers, but also the most powerful economicists. When I was in the royal Norwegian Airforce I was taught to speak my mind if I sensed a danger, and grounding planes, even if it was a loss to the generals. Nowadays I am an engineer, and I have continued this codex. Even though I have hundreds of designs around the world in service, I haven't heard of any harm to people or the environment, because I refuse to close any design i see as risky.

[harmsfam15]

My Mom was living in Galveston at the time, and she was in the 2nd grade. Her teacher lost her husband. She was told to run home, and she was covered in oil, by the time she got there.  My Grandmother was thrown onto her desk in Galveston. My Grandmother and Aunts went to the hospital in Galveston to help, and my Mom says she shouldn't have.

[domonicdiazdeleon3]

i live there too im in blocker middle school

[zackde4]

@domonicdiazdeleon3 Whats up home boi me 2

[MegaBJIMGM]

I used to live there and when bp exploded we thought someone bombed our school

[mrjimmyos]

A crane was sent over 2 miles

[mrjimmyos]

@mrjimmyos No wait, I meant to say anchor not crane

[SvenTviking]

What with this and the Halifax nova scotia explosion, if you see a burning ship, head away!

[ClubQBall]

A 2-ton anchor from the Grandcamp was hurled 1.62 miles (2.61 km) and found in a 10-foot (3 m) crater. It now rests in a memorial park. The main 5-ton anchor was hurled 1/2 mile (800 m) to the entrance of the Texas City Dike, and rests on a Texas shaped memorial at the entrance.

People felt the shock 250 miles (400 km) away in Louisiana. The explosion blew almost 6,350 tons of the ship's steel into the air, some at supersonic speed.

[latinboy295]

@ClubQBall it was actually 150 miles away and i know because i have a big project on this and did alot of research

[ClubQBall]

@latinboy295

That's all well and good. However, I suggest you do some more detailed research on the subject. Not only did I have several family members who worked and lived in Texas City during this period of time, but I'm FROM Houston and I, too, have done extensive research on the subject for both high school AND college ... plus, virtually all the males in my family, including myself, work in the petrochemical industry.

I think I know what I'm talking about, thank you.

[jdrichardsgalveston]

When I looked for pictures to doe a vidoe for my song about the Texas City Explosions wish I had found yours. I tried to make my tune as historically accurate as I could. Let me know what you think. Your 2 are very informative. Thanx.

[paulj2005]

i work in texas city as a contractor,you never what might happen if you work in the refinery

[Alecwatson]

good ol' ammonium nitrate

[zenmachinefilms]

Very well done. Thanks for posting this.

[DeathxIcarus]

i live in Texas City, i can look out my window and see the plants. i wasent alive during this, im 18. but they do explode often. about once a year at least. couple months ago, i was jsut driving around and one of em blew up..drove over there and recorded the big fire and shit lol

[1nubby1]

I live in Texas City to, it isnt that bad

[gtrxxfiendxx]

I live there too! And yes its that bad/

[ToxicYena]

Hmm..last exsplodison I remmber happening was about..05

[abletonreason]

"BoomTown" haha sorry..

[Rieff922]

It was a little funny to hear the city be called that in the video... Irony is actually a better term

[LeanaJo76]

There's always some kind of explosion/disaster in that part of Texas all the time. I grew up about 2 hours from there.

[TarynsWorld]

I live here it was in 47 and i have metal in a oak tree in my front from it its sad and knowing the compaines dont care bout there workers makes me worry even more of could it happen again

[cokemagistrate]

This along with incidents like Chernobyl just go to show that man is hardly ever in control of their discoveries and that we are almost never careful enough.

[delinq69]

the doco i saw on this as part of a loading dangerous cargo showed 2 ships berthed @ wharf exploded, 1st ship had bailing twine loaded in hatch with nitrate, when it blew up burning twine rained down on the city causing fires all over town.M.U.A. HERE TO STAY

[Galstaff]

Very informative video, I believe it was 1947 not 1957 though.

[YourPrivateArea]

tomorrow?!

[thewhitewhale70]

Thanks for uploading this. I've read about this fire a few times and the stories of some of the people involved are amazing. I can't believe they haven't made a movie about it yet.