1921 Oppau explosion

Two blasts in quick succession at 7:32 a.m. shook the Ludwigshafen and Mannheim area when a tower silo holding 4,500 tonnes of mixed ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate fertiliser went up at the BASF works at Oppau, now part of Ludwigshafen. The German environment agency's chronicle records 561 killed and about 2,000 injured, with roughly 80 percent of the buildings in Oppau destroyed. BASF's own account of the morning notes that the shock waves were registered at the seismological station in Munich, some 300 kilometres away.

Date
1921-09-21
Deaths (Wikipedia list, low end where it gives a range)
565
What the pin marks
The plant at Oppau where the silo exploded, as the cited page positions it.
Where the position is published
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppau_explosion

Category: Disasters & Incidents

Tags: fertiliser, ammonium nitrate, chemical plant, germany

Coordinates: 49.51778, 8.41833

Part of Industrial and accidental explosions that killed 200 or more people since 1900

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