Home > Texas City Disaster

The Texas City Disaster is generally considered the worst industrial accident in the USA's history. 405 dead were identified; 63 more were never identified. About 100 people were classified as missing, and never found. The explosion was so large that Strategic Air Command briefly raised the United States defense level ( Defcon) in fear that it was a nuclear attack.

Some of the deaths and damage in Texas City were due to the destruction and subsequent burning of a chemical plant and other industrial facilities close to the point of the explosions. Fires resulting from the various cataclysmic events were still burning a week after the disaster.

Ammonium nitrate is not known for being capable of detonating without being mixed with a fuel. The disaster at Texas City may be due at least in part to the fact that the ammonium nitrate was destined for a tropical region, and "waterproofed" with paraffin or other solid hydrocarbon that rendered the mixture detonable under the peculiar conditions found in the conflagration.

External links

• Welcome to the City of Texas City (history of the explosion)

• The Explosion 50 Years Later, Texas City Still Remembers