City on Fire

Since yesterday was Fun Monday, I'm a day behind on this post, but I thought I'd sneak it in anyway. . .

On 16 April, 1947, the huge freighter ship Grandcamp exploded while docked at the Texas City port.

At the time, Texas City was a pretty booming Texas town located on the Gulf of Mexico, and a rather important port city. Now it is a huge petro-chemical plant plus some nice parks, trails, etc. My mom grew up in Texas City (she's a BOGI (Born on Galveston Island for those of you not from the area) but moved to TC really young), and my grandpa lives there still today. He actually lives about 3 miles from where the Grandcamp exploded.

You see, the big ship exploded because they were loading it with fertilizer (ammonium nitrate?) that got too hot and went kabloowie. More than 500 people died, but they really have no idea how many casualties there really were. (A lot of the poor communities were located near the docks, so records are sketchy.) Thousands were injured and the damage was seen and felt miles away--like, in Denver. (The windows on my grandpa's house in Texas City exploded--Mom tells me that any time they had to dig in the flower beds beneath the windows, they would find tons of glass.) The compounded tragedy came with the slow government response and the lack of preparation for a large-scale industrial disaster as this.

My grandpa was the luckiest man alive that day. He and his family were living in Galveston at the time, but he was working in Texas City at the docks. The morning of 16 April, 1947, Gramps had a sprained ankle and did not go in to work. (Mom, I may be wrong, but this is how I remember the story, and I think it's pretty good.)

Thank God for that sprained ankle! Especially since my mom hadn't been born yet and if he had been in Texas City that day, who knows if he would have survived.

So yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the explosion, and many residents gathered to remember the day that changed Texas City forever. Here's the Chronicle article:

A few years ago I read the book City on Fire about the explosion, and it was absolutely riveting. I promise you can't put this book down. It gives a very personal account of the Texas City disaster.

Well, the realtor is showing the house in about 45 minutes, and I need to make it look appealing and dog-hair free in that time. See you soon!