A ship caught fire in a Texas port and 500 spectators gathered to watch — then 2,300 tons of fertilizer detonated, killing 581 people including nearly the entire volunteer fire department.
On the morning of April 16, 1947, smoke appeared in the hold of a docked cargo ship, the SS Grandcamp, at the port of Texas City, Texas. The ship was carrying 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. As word spread, nearly 500 people — including children — gathered along the waterfront to watch the fire. They believed they were at a safe distance.
At 9:12 AM, the Grandcamp detonated. The explosion was heard 150 miles away. It generated a 15-foot tsunami, a shockwave that leveled nearly 1,000 buildings, and sent the ship's 2-ton anchor flying more than a mile through the air. Two planes overhead were blown from the sky. Windows shattered in Galveston, 8 miles away. The spectators who had gathered to watch were among the first to die.
The explosion killed almost every member of Texas City's volunteer fire department. Twenty-seven of the department's 28 firemen were on the dock battling the blaze when the ship detonated. The one survivor hadn't answered the initial call. Within minutes, the city had no functional fire department, and fires were breaking out everywhere.
The disaster wasn't over. The explosion freed a second ship, the High Flyer — also carrying ammonium nitrate — from its moorings. Tugboats tried all evening to tow it away from the docks but couldn't move it. At 1:10 AM the following morning, the High Flyer exploded too, in a blast witnesses described as more powerful than the first.
The final death toll was at least 581 people, with an additional 113 classified as missing and never found. Over 5,000 were injured. More than 500 homes were destroyed. The explosion site looked, according to witnesses, like photographs of Nagasaki. It remains the deadliest industrial accident in United States history.
Survivors sued the U.S. government, which had overseen the ammonium nitrate's manufacture and shipping. The district court found the government negligent. The Supreme Court overturned the verdict in 1953, ruling that government agencies couldn't be held liable for 'discretionary' decisions. Congress eventually passed legislation granting compensation — a political fix for a legal system that couldn't deliver justice.