Okla-homey
4/16/2007, 06:11 AM
April 16, 1947: Texas City explodes
http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/14102/2003880745306046017_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003880745306046017)
60 years ago today, at 9:12 a.m. in Texas City's port on Galveston Bay, a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp ignites ammonium nitrate and other explosive materials in the ship's hold, causing a massive blast that destroys much of the city and takes nearly 600 lives.
As an aside, the Texas City disaster also triggered the first-ever class action lawsuit against the United States government for its alleged failure to take reasobale measures to prevent such disasters, under the then-recently enacted Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), on behalf of 8,485 victims.
The chemical compound ammonium nitrate, the nitrate of ammonia with the chemical formula NH4NO3, is a white powder at room temperature and standard pressure. It is commonly used in agriculture as a high-nitrogen fertilizer, and it has also been used as an oxidizing agent in explosives, especially improvised explosive devices, including the one used by the current occupant of Hell who attacked the federal building in OKC.
The port of Texas City, a small industrial city with a population of about 18,000, was teaming with chemical plants and oil refineries that provided steady, good-paying jobs for much of the town. In the industrial sector, minor accidents and chemical fires were rather commonplace, and many stood around the port casually watching the reddish orange blaze that broke out on aboard Grandcamp early on a Wednesday morning.
Twenty-seven members of the Texas City Volunteer Fire Department were called out to douse the flames, but the ship was so hot that the water from their fire hoses was instantly vaporized.
At 12 minutes past nine, the fire caught the freighter's stores of ammonium nitrate, a compound used to make dynamite, and the ship, and Texas City exploded. Wood-frame houses in the city were flattened, additional blasts were triggered at nearby chemical plants, and fires broke out across the city.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/13847/2003899276652665807_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003899276652665807)
Photo capturing the blast at almost the precise moment Grandcamp blew.
The mushroom cloud from the blast rose 2,000 feet, and fragments of Grandcamp were hurled thousands of feet into the air, landing on buildings and people.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/13847/2003888301150150830_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003888301150150830)
Devastating fires burned for days, and on April 17 the freighter High Flyer, also loaded with nitrates, exploded, further devastating the port and causing a new string of explosions at nearby plants. Fortunately, most of Texas City's population had been evacuated by then, and the city's losses were primarily material.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/14577/2002742729051765467_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002742729051765467)
150ft barge LONGHORN II in background washed onshore by the resulting tidal wave
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/14045/2001713411804174007_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001713411804174007)
Amid the very same refineries damaged by the Texas City explosion of 1947 is a commemorative marker and the 1.5 ton propeller flung a two miles from the SS High Flyer, an ammonium nitrate-filled ship which exploded 16 hours after being set ablaze by the explosion of the SS Grandcamp, in the Port of Texas City
http://aycu01.webshots.com/image/15800/2003877393503642747_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003877393503642747)
Texas City as seen from Galveston
By late in the day on April 18, emergency crews had the situation under control. Some eyewitnesses said the scene was worse than anything they had seen in Europe during World War II. The Grandcamp explosion was the most devastating industrial accident in U.S. history, with 600 people killed and more than 3,000 wounded.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/12442/2001702066481916645_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001702066481916645)
Official incident report by Texas authorities:
http://www.local1259iaff.org/report.htm
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/14548/2003870447138567980_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003870447138567980)
The lawsuit:
And what of the lawsuit? Well, the plaintiffs won at the district court on their claim the gubmint should have had better measures in place to prevent this sort of thing, but lost the appeal in New Orleans. On June 10, 1952, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (where a distinguished member of this message board provides outstanding service to his fellow Americans as a staff attorney) overturned the trial court decision, finding that the United States maintained the right to exercise its own "discretion" in vital national matters...like assploding cities and what not.
The Supreme Court affirmed the 5CA decision (346 U.S. 15, June 8, 1953), in a 4-to-3 opinion, noting that the federal district court had no jurisdiction under the Federal Tort Claims Act to find the U.S. government liable for “negligent planning decisions” which were properly delegated to various departments and agencies.
In short, SCOTUS held that the FTCA clearly exempted “failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty”, and the Court found that all of the alleged acts in this case were discretionary in nature. IOW, it was completely up to the gubmint to regulate such matters however it saw fit and it couldn't be sued even if the gubmint negligently allowed such a thing to occur.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/13646/2001010705597421608_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001010705597421608)
http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/14102/2003880745306046017_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003880745306046017)
60 years ago today, at 9:12 a.m. in Texas City's port on Galveston Bay, a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp ignites ammonium nitrate and other explosive materials in the ship's hold, causing a massive blast that destroys much of the city and takes nearly 600 lives.
As an aside, the Texas City disaster also triggered the first-ever class action lawsuit against the United States government for its alleged failure to take reasobale measures to prevent such disasters, under the then-recently enacted Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), on behalf of 8,485 victims.
The chemical compound ammonium nitrate, the nitrate of ammonia with the chemical formula NH4NO3, is a white powder at room temperature and standard pressure. It is commonly used in agriculture as a high-nitrogen fertilizer, and it has also been used as an oxidizing agent in explosives, especially improvised explosive devices, including the one used by the current occupant of Hell who attacked the federal building in OKC.
The port of Texas City, a small industrial city with a population of about 18,000, was teaming with chemical plants and oil refineries that provided steady, good-paying jobs for much of the town. In the industrial sector, minor accidents and chemical fires were rather commonplace, and many stood around the port casually watching the reddish orange blaze that broke out on aboard Grandcamp early on a Wednesday morning.
Twenty-seven members of the Texas City Volunteer Fire Department were called out to douse the flames, but the ship was so hot that the water from their fire hoses was instantly vaporized.
At 12 minutes past nine, the fire caught the freighter's stores of ammonium nitrate, a compound used to make dynamite, and the ship, and Texas City exploded. Wood-frame houses in the city were flattened, additional blasts were triggered at nearby chemical plants, and fires broke out across the city.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/13847/2003899276652665807_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003899276652665807)
Photo capturing the blast at almost the precise moment Grandcamp blew.
The mushroom cloud from the blast rose 2,000 feet, and fragments of Grandcamp were hurled thousands of feet into the air, landing on buildings and people.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/13847/2003888301150150830_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003888301150150830)
Devastating fires burned for days, and on April 17 the freighter High Flyer, also loaded with nitrates, exploded, further devastating the port and causing a new string of explosions at nearby plants. Fortunately, most of Texas City's population had been evacuated by then, and the city's losses were primarily material.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/14577/2002742729051765467_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002742729051765467)
150ft barge LONGHORN II in background washed onshore by the resulting tidal wave
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/14045/2001713411804174007_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001713411804174007)
Amid the very same refineries damaged by the Texas City explosion of 1947 is a commemorative marker and the 1.5 ton propeller flung a two miles from the SS High Flyer, an ammonium nitrate-filled ship which exploded 16 hours after being set ablaze by the explosion of the SS Grandcamp, in the Port of Texas City
http://aycu01.webshots.com/image/15800/2003877393503642747_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003877393503642747)
Texas City as seen from Galveston
By late in the day on April 18, emergency crews had the situation under control. Some eyewitnesses said the scene was worse than anything they had seen in Europe during World War II. The Grandcamp explosion was the most devastating industrial accident in U.S. history, with 600 people killed and more than 3,000 wounded.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/12442/2001702066481916645_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001702066481916645)
Official incident report by Texas authorities:
http://www.local1259iaff.org/report.htm
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/14548/2003870447138567980_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003870447138567980)
The lawsuit:
And what of the lawsuit? Well, the plaintiffs won at the district court on their claim the gubmint should have had better measures in place to prevent this sort of thing, but lost the appeal in New Orleans. On June 10, 1952, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (where a distinguished member of this message board provides outstanding service to his fellow Americans as a staff attorney) overturned the trial court decision, finding that the United States maintained the right to exercise its own "discretion" in vital national matters...like assploding cities and what not.
The Supreme Court affirmed the 5CA decision (346 U.S. 15, June 8, 1953), in a 4-to-3 opinion, noting that the federal district court had no jurisdiction under the Federal Tort Claims Act to find the U.S. government liable for “negligent planning decisions” which were properly delegated to various departments and agencies.
In short, SCOTUS held that the FTCA clearly exempted “failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty”, and the Court found that all of the alleged acts in this case were discretionary in nature. IOW, it was completely up to the gubmint to regulate such matters however it saw fit and it couldn't be sued even if the gubmint negligently allowed such a thing to occur.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/13646/2001010705597421608_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001010705597421608)