4-16-15 On this day in Labor History the year was 1947 in 2:00 500-600 workers killed

[Omaha Steve]

http://laborhistoryin2.podbean.com/e/april-16-1429159626/



April 16, 2015
On this day in Labor History the year was 1947.

The day dawned unseasonably cool in Texas City, TX, a port city forty miles south of Houston on the Gulf of Mexico.

2:00 minute audio at link.

[yallerdawg]

1. Fire fighter memorial page:

The Grandcamp's explosion triggered the worst industrial disaster, resulting in the largest number of casualties, in American history. Such was the intensity of the blasts and the ensuing confusion that no one was able to establish precisely the number of dead and injured. Ultimately, the Red Cross and the Texas Department of Public Safety counted 405 identified and 63 unidentified dead. Another 100 persons were classified as "believed missing" because no trace of their remains was ever found. Estimates of the injured are even less precise but appear to have been on the order of 3,500 persons. Although not all casualties were residents of Texas City, the total was equivalent to a staggering 25 percent of the towns estimated population of 16,000.

http://www.local1259iaff.org/disaster.html