1947 Texas City disaster

Residents of the industrial port on the Gulf Coast watched smoke rise from a moored cargo ship before the French vessel SS Grandcamp, carrying approximately 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, exploded at 9:12 a.m. A thousand buildings were destroyed, and the blast killed the firefighters at the scene, the Grandcamp crew still aboard and most of the crowd that had gathered to watch the fire. Accounts of the fire service losses differ, one describing nearly the entire volunteer fire department and another half the firefighters of the Texas City Fire Department; Mental Floss reports that nearly 600 people are generally assumed to have been killed, with thousands more wounded.

Date
1947-04-16
Deaths (Wikipedia list, low end where it gives a range)
581
What the pin marks
The port of Texas City where the Grandcamp exploded, as the cited page positions it.
Where the position is published
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

Category: Disasters & Incidents

Tags: ship explosion, ammonium nitrate, fertiliser, port, texas

Coordinates: 29.3775, -94.89139

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

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