Selects: The Texas City Disaster of 1947 | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hey everyone it's me joshh and for this. week's sysk select I've chosen our. episode on the Texas city disaster in. Texas they do everything bigger. including industrial disasters in this. episode from March of 2021 we cover one. of the biggest explosions in American. history made up of not one but two huge. blasts that leveled the refinery Port. Town of Texas City I hope you find this. one as riveting as we did.

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh Clark and there's Charles W Chuck. Bryant and there's Jerry over there and. this is stuff you should. [Music]. know I was about to say natural disaster. Edition but unnatural disaster Edition. industrial disaster is what they call.

these yeah human caused in fact from. what I saw what we're going to talk. about today the main thing we're talking. about today is the largest industrial. disaster in United States history still. oh still huh yes what 70 almost 75 years. on man sad this is a big one yeah. everything about this was really big but. in basically all the wrong ways um right. we're going to talk today about a.

disaster called the Texas City. explosion and sadly you might say which. one because there's been multiple. massive explosions in Texas City one of. the reasons why is because Texas city is. has made a name for itself as one of the. Premier prochemical. ports in the United States and indeed. possibly the world I think it was um up. until World War II it was like the. fourth largest port in Texas.

but I think since World War II um it's. grown even more and I know for a little. while there BP had a Refinery that was. its most profitable oil refinery in the. world which is really saying something I. mean that's a big deal BP is an enormous. company with multiple refineries so you. know for the the biggest one the most. profitable one to be in Texas City that. kind of put Texas city on the map in. some. circles yeah so Texas city is above the.

of Mexico and like you said it's a port. town uh founded in the late 1800s by. some Minnesota hunters and they said you. know what I think we can set up shop. here I think we can dig up a canal set. up a rail line yeah uh we've got some. really good deep water and we could be a. good shipping Port I want to know how. they like what what conversation led to. that like what what hunting trip ends up. in you basically building a port town in. a city that's about as far away from. your home as you can get in the same. country.

yeah I mean there were some real. go-getters I guess yeah I guess so they. couldn't just relax and kill animals. right God uh so that's what happened to. Texas City I mean that's what how it was. kind of founded and it was a like think. refineries think warehouses and chemical. plants uh World War II comes. around and the military of course says. well we'll be sort of controlling this. area for a while cuz it's pretty. valuable port for us.

and we're going to ship Munitions in and. out of here uh World War II comes and. goes and then after the war about a year. and a half after the war it is uh run by. civilians again and let's just say that. it was a little more of a uh a relaxed. scene than it was when the military was. running the show yeah they the military. ran it like a tight ship basically um. and it yeah what there's just a big. difference between when the military is. running a port and when a port's run by. just a a whole bunch of different.

private companies you know what I'm. saying Minnesota Hunters exactly so um. that's not to say it was just some Lucy. goosey um place or anything like that. but just comparatively speaking uh and. one of the uh one of the other things. that Texas city had going against it on. the morning of April 16th 1947 is that. there weren't really a lot of standards. and regulations for handling chemicals. and that we didn't have an enormous. grasp on just how chemicals worked at.

that time um and so all of this all of. these things kind of came together this. kind of slightly LAX oversight and just. kind of lack much more relaxed attitude. toward cargo and then a lack of. awareness about just what kind of. dangers different caros pose just kind. of set things up for to take a bad. turn yeah so uh on the morning of April. 16th there were three uh ships docked in. the port there was most notably the SS.

Grand Camp which. was uh it was a it was a military ship. at one point but I think we gave it to. France as like a hey sorry Europe is. kind of destroyed why don't you take. this ship and just use it for whatever. you want to do and it was converted to a. cargo ship yeah uh which is which it was. on the day of April 16th um and it was. beside the SS high flyer and that was. beside.

uh the third one named after somebody. what was that one the Robert Kean or the. William Kean oh wait a minute which one. was it well it was um the Wilson be. Keane even better right the Billy Keane. as they called it yeah and I believe all. three of those were Liberty ships. right yeah they were World War II ships. and they were uh I think the SS High. Fier was being fixed at the time but was. still loaded down with stuff as was the. Grand camp camp and we'll sort of detail.

what was in the cargo because it's all. very very key yeah it's really important. so for 5 days leading up to April 16th. um Steve doors I think that's how you. say it but basically dock hands I don't. know why you wouldn't just say dock. hands you know but the stevors um man I. hope I'm saying that correctly. Chuck they had loaded up the grand camp. with 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate. fertilizer and uh these were in 100. pound paper Sachs akin to the kind of.

Sachs that you would buy like Portland. cement in these days right yeah um there. were some other cargo cyle twine peanuts. uh there was some Machinery there was. some cotton there was 16 cases of. ammunition I think like for small arms. ammunition um but for the most part it. was a lot of ammonium nitrate and the. same went for the SSH high flyer too. which as you said was in the next birth. it was loaded with 1,000 tons of. ammonium nitrate.

and then also very crucially 2,000 tons. of sulfur and all of these were also in. those same 100 lb paper bags so at the. time like I was saying people didn't. realize like this is this is a it was a. big deal that there was that much. ammonium nitrate just sitting around in. this port at that. time yeah it's a uh it's a crystall. likee solid it's white um a lot of times. it's used for nitrogen for agricultural. fertilizer.

but if you combine it with fuel oils it. can be very explosive and actually used. for that for like Mining and. construction and stuff like that but. it's not like you know if you tap the. the side of the bag it's going to. explode it's pretty safe as long as it's. all in the up and up and it's being. stored properly but if it starts to. absorb uh moisture then it's sort of. like Portland cement again it it's just. going to harden to a block right and. then if that thing in a solid Block it's.

going to be just a little bit more. volatile and a little bit more dangerous. if ignited yeah and I mean like it's not. even considered flammable as far as I. know and certainly in 1947 it wasn't. considered flammable because if you. walked up to some of this this ammonium. nitrate these pellets and just held a. lighter to them they wouldn't Catch Fire. that's not really what they do what they. do is they oxidize things they basically. create free radicals like we talked. about in the free radical episode yeah. um which sets like a chain reaction um.

and because they oxidize they they. concentrate and condense and produce. basically oxygen where it wasn't. otherwise present when when that that is. combined with the fire it makes a big. time fire um so that's bad enough right. like if you set them off like it'll. it'll combust or it'll help something. else combust more efficiently and more. more um at a higher temperature but the. problem the big problem with ammonium. nitrate is there there is a point where.

it can reach a high enough heat that it. itself decays and degrades and when that. happens it splits into two gases nitrous. oxide and water vapor which you're like. well that's that's great you know you. just get super duper high off of one and. the other one just makes you a little. moist maybe so maybe so in small enough. amounts but when this happens in a large. enough amount especially when this. ammonium nitrate is in one big melted.

block uh the Chain Reaction can happen. much more efficiently and when those. gases are um are produced when the when. the thing decays and separates um they. expand really quickly and that produces. an explosion um and the the forces the. um the energy that's released from an. explosion of ammonium nitrate decaying. and converting into nitrous oxide and. water vapor is Monumental like compared. to Atomic Bomb Blast basically if you.

have enough of it say 2300 tons and. 1,000 tons and a couple of ships just. sitting in Port all right that's a great. place for a cliffhanger I think I think. so too all right we'll be right back. after this. [Music].

[Music]. all right so this stuff uh the cargo. arrived uh by train uh to Texas City and. it was probably already heating up a. little bit on this train and maybe. already getting to the point where it. was a little un uh I don't know about. unstable but volatile at least. and the uh it gets transferred to the.

ship it continues to sort of heat up and. the the crew and everything like you. said there wasn't a lot of awareness. about kind of anything like this at the. time so to them it was just another uh. cargo hold they might have said like you. know be careful with the stuff guys or. maybe not even that yeah but they they. definitely didn't know like heat bad for. this stuff yeah they said you owe me two. bucks from lunch yesterday that's what. they said when they were loading this up. so around 8 a.m. in the morning uh these.

workers there started noticing that. there was smoke and Vapors coming out of. the ship uh so there was some kind of a. fire going on no one knew how it started. or what happened there are some people. anecdotally that say it was a cigarette. uh that was not in the could have been. that wasn't in the official report which. also wouldn't be surprising well what I. saw I saw later on Chuck that um the. fact that these things were in those. paper sacks that if they were heating up. they were just going to continue to heat.

up being packed tightly in the hold of. this unventilated ship um they were just. going to get warm and warmer and it's. possible they that the the ammonium. nitrate caused the paper sack to combust. catch fire spread to other Pap paper. sacks and then you had a um a positive. feedback loop where it just kept getting. the fire kept getting bigger and bigger. and crucially very important hotter and. hotter right so the captain sees this. happening there are people kind of. pouring in and looking around at what's.

going on uh the captain says batten down. these. hatches pull these tarps over them and. start pumping steam in there which. apparently was a a method at the time to. put out a fire on a ship when you didn't. want to ruin the cargo uh as opposed to. just blasting it with a fire hose which. would cause all the stuff to just brick. up like Portland cement he starts. pumping steam in there and that just. started heat you know everyone knows. steam is going to heat stuff up so that.

just started and the moisture made a bad. situation a lot worse really quickly. yeah I I get the impression that had the. captain his name was Captain Charles de. Gabon um he had he made the decision to. just go ahead and let the cargo be. ruined and have the fire put out with. fire hoses this all might never have. happened but it was and you I mean I. understand where he was coming from he. didn't want to ruin the cargo if he. didn't have to because steaming out of a. fire aboard a ship was a an accepted.

firefighting technique it works and it. it could conceivably save a lot of the. cargo so it's not like he just made this. ridiculous stupid mistake it's just in. hindsight it was probably the decision. that led to this. catastrophe yeah I mean I think more. than anything it's like you said it was. the time when there was not much. regulation and sort of in in the dawning. of the chemical age people just didn't. know right and plus also at the time um.

Texas city had a volunteer fire. department um which I would guess. wouldn't have quite as much dur. jurisdiction and could be told by a. captain like no no no just go away like. I'm I'm going to handle this myself. rather than being like uh no we're going. to put the fire out on on your. ship yeah it's a good point so the steam. is making things. worse uh it pumped into the the holds. and everything's heating up everything's. getting moist and like we said moisture. is no good for this stuff.

and it did it started to convert to. these solid masses and you know there's. going to be gas releasing and it's. building up all this pressure because. they had battened down the hatches and. covered them with tarps and it so much. so that it blew these hatch covers off. at about 8:30 in the morning that's. crazy man just that alone would have. been spectacular and I'm sure it was um. but when those hatches blew off all the. smoke that had been kind of stuck in the. hole inside the ship started billowing. out and and the thing apparently about.

ammonium nitrate burning is it produces. really kind of mesmerizing colored smoke. from one of the um Witnesses it was. apparently salmon orange and purple oh. wow and so this smoke coming out of it. um started to attract people like like. onlookers who are like what's what's. going on I want to go see this giant. weird fire that's going on down at the. port and something like 300 people. including entire families kids from the. local school came over um all sorts of.

people just kind of stopped what they. were doing and came to watch this weird. fire at the port and apparently kgbc out. of Galveston which is just 10 miles down. the coast out in the the Gulf of Mexico. um they were warning people to stay away. but apparently that just alerted more. people that there was something going on. who went down to go check it out. themselves yeah so they they knew there. was a big problem at this point they did. call the firefighters in and Tugboat to. maybe try and get that thing out of.

there and uh at this point like you said. the heat was just so great that even a. fire hose isn't going to do much it's. kind of just vaporizing when it hits it. because of the massive amounts of heat. and then you know this whole thing. started at 8 at 8:30 is when the hatches. uh blew and then at. 9:12 the thing exploded and we're going. to kind of list through a a pretty. horrifying list of um of impacts from. like. distances like a a seis mgraph in Denver.

Colorado picked up this explosion yeah. um and this is again in the southernmost. part of Texas right yeah like they felt. it in Louisiana you know like 3,000 foot. firebombs and cargo flying up in the air. so yeah the the enormous amount of. energy that I was talking about that was. released by this 2300 tons of ammonium. nitrate um in retrospect I think has.

been the I saw compared to a 2.7 kiloton. blast yeah which would put this. blast of this ship blowing up at. somewhere on the order of about oneir no. I'm sorry oneth of the uh Hiroshima. nuclear bomb which just completely. leveled that City this was about a fifth. that size so it was still a really. substantial enormous blast and one of. the first effects it had is that it blew. this Liberty ship this huge World War II.

era cargo ship a couple thousand feet. into the air in multiple pieces to just. shower out downward as hot metal. shrapnel um onto the surrounding City. and that's not accounting for the shrep. that immediately blew outward as those. gases expand um expanded right into all. of those onlookers and the people who. are fighting the fire around the. port yeah there was uh they had a couple. of two ton an aners one of those went.

about a mile and a half away in the air. mhm uh like we said you could feel it in. Louisiana there was um a Monsanto and a. Union Carbide uh two different chemical. plants kind of right beside it they were. just flattened basically just not even. there anymore yeah I saw that one of the. warehouses Warehouse Zero at the Port. which was I think the one that was. closest to the ship um this his storying. from uh Houston I think said that it. just disappeared like it was just gone. like it wasn't there any longer like the. word disintegrate Works in a lot of the.

instances when you're describing what. happened to a lot of the structures and. people who were around this this. blast well yeah I mean that's the. obvious thing you know there were. hundreds of onlookers there were people. that worked there there were uh all 28. members of the fire department they were. all killed basically instantly anyone. within that zone was killed instantly. some people like you said just just not. even able to recover enough body parts. to identify humans at that point yeah.

that proved to be a real problem so like. um first of all the fact that the entire. fire department Apparently one there was. one Survivor from the fire department. but he was out of town at the time. that's why he survived but the whole. fire department and all of their. equipment was immediately wiped out um. one of the problems was with an. explosion like this in a place like this. is that it ruptures lines and pipes and. all of those petrochemicals that are. being refined suddenly catch fire so now. you have the these outof control fires.

in the buildings and structures that are. left standing um and you no longer have. a fire department or any fire equipment. to put it out for a little while so the. the um immediate impact out outside of. the blast was also the the fires that. were um lit just right after this. too well I mean you've got you know. you've got the metal shrapnel but then. you've also remember there were peanuts. and Twine and cotton and all this stuff. so that's these are like Fireballs being. launched basically starting fires all.

over the place it wasn't just in the. immediate area and like you said because. the fire department was then out of. commission that's that's real trouble. yeah so it took a little while for um. more Aid to show up but apparently this. this explosion was so bad and the. catastrophe was so great the Army Navy. Coast Guard Marines Texas National Guard. and then firefighters from surrounding. uh cities all came out to help and this. wasn't just like putting this chemical.

fire out but also like trying to you. know rescue people from Rubble like. there's really a lot that we could sit. here and say but if you have a computer. in front of you like just look up. pictures um from the Texas City. explosion of. 1947 it it's just unreal what happened. to like enormous steel buildings just. turned into like Twisted Metal and this. is like you know the middle of of a work. day so there were people trapped all.

over the place um in this debris so. there was a huge um uh rescue operation. that had to start but it was delayed. because most of the people who were. tasked with that kind of thing had all. been killed in the initial. blast yeah so remember earlier we said. that there were three ships there uh. this one blows up and obviously you know. it it's a it's a full-on like 911 scene. at this point with just how chaotic it.

is people are uh not noticing that right. next door the SSH high flyer also. remember was loaded with this stuff and. also with sulfur which makes it become. unstable and this thing had been. unlodged I mean I'm surprised it's just. the Integrity of these ships is the only. reason that those weren't just blown to. bits too like it was kind of right next. to it and it and it was still intact at. least. and it was blown from its moringo and.

drifted over and kind of uh attached. itself to the Wilson be Keen which was. again in the slip next to it and I think. there were some crew members aboard in. there that I guess were just protected. by that thick steel right yeah from what. I understand um and they were kind of. still doing their thing for a little. while and they were finally because the. the uh high flyer caught fire as well um. they were finally forced out by the. smoke because this is some obnoxious. noxious smoke this isn't I mean this.

isn't just like wood burning smoke this. is some really bad chemical smoke that. can mess you up it's crazy that these. salor stayed aboard for an hour but. they're finally forced off a ship but. they tell people like hey this is this. is on fire everybody's like uh have you. seen the other problems we have over. here and the fire department just got. basically vaporized um so the fire was. allowed to continue on the high flyer. for hours hours and hours like that that. blast happened at 912 a.m. and it wasn't. until the afternoon that somebody else.

rediscovered the fire aboard the high. flyer and started to kind of like raise. the alarm about this um still this is. such a chaotic scene that there wasn't. anything immediately done about it and. it wasn't until 11:00 p.m. that they're. finally like oh this is a really this is. a bad Jam because not only do we have a. th tons tons of ammonium nitrate aboard. the high flyer there's that you. mentioned Chuck and like you said it. makes it even more unstable in that you.

know how um ammonium nitrate oxidizes. things sulfur is like food to that stuff. as far it oxidizes sulfur it's just like. piling on this oxidizing fuel to make. the blast even more energetic so it. would it would be a really big problem. if the high flyer blew up so they. brought in some tugboats in a fireboat I. think from Galveston and started to try. to take it out of the birth um to tug it.

out to sea to let it like burn out or. blow up or whatever it was going to do. but I guess it was stuck so fast that um. that they couldn't get it. out yeah I mean I guess you know this. thing was. not I guess just sort of wedged in there. from that first explosion and I think. they worked on it for a couple of hours. they started it about 11:00 p.m. and. then it looks like by 1:00 a.m. they had. stopped that. uh process and at.

1:10 this is now on April 17th you know. early next morning uh the highflyer. exploded as well and this was even more. violent um the only I mean it's not a. Saving Grace at all because everything. was already leveled but the only reason. it didn't cause more death and more. destruction sadly is because everything. was already destroyed and most people. were already dead yeah and plus also. they knew Enough by this time that they. needed to clear the area that there. wasn't anything they could do so. everybody who was working in the rescue.

operation was told to leave so there I. just I don't know if there were any more. deaths from the high fly blowing up but. the problem was is that any fires that. might have been put out were relit and. other structures that may have been. spared from the initial blast were now. leveled or caught fire or both so it was. a big problem that the high Fier blew up. as well uh I think it sunk the the. Wilson keing too it did it sunk it um. and and it was uh it was yeah I can only.

imagine too also if you survive that. first one to have another blast like. that even one you were away from and you. knew was coming would just do something. to the nerves that would be really. difficult to recover from yeah for sure. you want to take a break yeah we'll take. a little break and we'll talk about sort. of the result of the devastation and a. couple of other incidents right after. those. [Music].

[Music]. [Music]. okay so Chuck um one thing that we. didn't say was that uh the the initial. explosion by the Grand Camp created like.

a 15 foot tidal wave that washed Inland. and um people died almost in creative. ways in This Disaster and one of those. ways was um those petrochemicals I think. there was a molasses Refinery that. started to get mixed in that kept the. petrochemicals burning in the water uh. when it mixed with them when this tidal. wave blew out um when it blew in I'm. sorry it was on fire so it it actually.

caught people on fire it caught people. on fire on the way back out to sea and. people who survived the initial blast. were actually swept out and drowned from. this too there were people who died in. airplanes that had come around to kind. of circle the area um were blown out of. the sky um there were people who died in. buildings that collapsed there were. people who died from shrapnel falling. out of the sky and killing them even. though they were miles away like there. were there was so much death and.

destruction that it's really difficult. to get across what happened to this poor. little Port City that hadn't done. anything to anybody that just suddenly. blew. up yeah in the end uh the official death. hole was uh close to 600 581 people uh. 113 of which were just vaporized no. Trace was ever found of. 113 people uh casualties up to 5,000 the.

numbers kind of vary but anywhere from. 3500 to 5,000 and you know Texas city. was uh not a very big place it was about. 16,000 strong right so this was just. devastating to the city uh into the. region um it took about a week to put. out all these fires and I think a full. month plus to recover uh whatever bodies. they could recover at that point yeah. the final body wasn't found until. miday um the there was there were people.

who were never um like you said. accounted for there were there were the. converse of that was true too there were. parts of people that were never. identified um and one of the accounts. that I read was like I was saying was. written by a a I think a University of. Houston historian um named Cheryl La. dorf Ross in in um the H in the journal.

Houston history but she recounts. somebody um mentioning a woman who was. trying to identify her husband who is. lost in the disaster and she had to sort. through hands they had a collection of. hands that um this woman was trying to. figure out which one belonged to her. husband and like that's just nuts to. hear but if you can even begin to put. yourself into that woman's shoes yeah. the reality of that yes of being in that. room of like looking at different hands.

and then also not just the horror of of. that of of like having to look through. body parts that may or may not be your. husbands but then the self-doubt like is. that my husband's hand like I I don't. remember what it looked like you know. like that just your mind messing with. you on top of the horrific experience. that you're already um undergoing but. she was one of many because something. like. 61 um people I believe were interred. without being ident identified but their. their remains were um kind of assembled.

and uh and and put together in a. memorial service that was attended by. something like thousands of people I. believe so Chuck so if there was 16,000. people and that many people were hurt or. killed by this blast you can imagine how. quickly this little town was overwhelmed. with all these casualties and so they. were getting people like every which way. Trucking them over to G Galviston like. getting them wherever they could. whatever hospital they could find but. very quickly the high school gym was.

taken over to serve as a field hospital. and then shortly after that the morg and. one of the stories that stuck out to me. was the Boy Scouts were pressed into. service to basically help out however. they could and these poor little like. like Teenage and pre-teen Scouts are. like working in this makeshift morg in. their high school gym like imagine the. impression that had on them the rest of. their life you know jeez I know isn't. that crazy like every as of the story is. just nuts it's very sad yeah and of.

course the the financial loss was huge. um about $100 million in property loss. 500 million in Lost petroleum products. and that's about 700 million and 3.5. billion in today. dollars uh I think there is um sort of. buried beneath the burms there is a. Memorial Park where 63 unidentified. victims are buried yeah that's what it. was talking about yeah and there's that.

anchor that we talked about I don't know. if it was the one that actually blew the. mile and a half away but at least one of. the anchors is uh is a monument at the. park along with um a scarred propeller. from the high flyer at the entrance to. the port there at Texas City yeah so. that um that funeral procession that. they had that attracted I think. something like 5,000 MERS um was a real. like Community effort um there were. something like 50 plus funeral homes. from 28 different cities that all.

participated and each of these 63. unidentified people where there remains. I should say were put in their own. individual caskets and buried in the. Memorial Park which is still you know. there that that Park is still there with. the anchor and everything um but it was. it it's just it's such a an enormous. weird catastrophe and just such a. devastating thing especially looking. back 70 years to read about but when you. do read about it if you can just kind of. put yourself in mind of what that was. like of you know trying to uh recover.

from that it's it's astounding that. Texas city did recover a lot of people. moved um and just said not only like do. I think the city's never going to come. back from this I don't know if I can. come back from this but the city. actually did come back and they did. build back from what I understand even. bigger than before which is how that BP. Refinery that ended up blowing up that. became the most profitable in BP's. entire company um because the City built. back even better than.

before that's great it is great I mean. not great that it it exploded again in. 2005 obviously but great that they were. had to stick to it and us to come back. as a city so you know obviously. following something like this there's. going to be a lot more regulation going. on uh the us is going to step up. federally and say hey wait a minute we. really need to take a look at how we're. handling these chemicals how we're. storing these things how we're shipping. these things uh and a lot of changes. were made here and around the world but.

uh it's not to say that that completely. prevented this from happening again. because in uh bayut just last year in. August of 2020 there was another big. cargo of ammonium nitrate that had been. sitting in a warehouse for seven years. it's no one is exactly sure why it. ignited this time but there was a dock. worker that said that there were. fireworks stored nearby and they did. find thousands of kilograms of fireworks. uh recovered. from a warehouse at that port and this.

explosion was you know it was a crater. about 460 ft wide and you know it was. about as big as the Texas City blast I. so I saw both I saw that it was about as. big and I saw that it was about half the. size but I mean but even at half you. know but so yeah go look at video of. that what's astounding about that. bayroot blast is there happens to be. people who are filming when it happened. because there was a fire I remember when. it happened yeah so you've seen that. that like that white cloud that's that. water vapor expanding right and the the.

the you can't see it but there's nitrous. oxide gas in there as well um so imagine. twice that size that's that would. probably be about the size of that first. Texas City blast in. 1947 yeah I mean I I remember seeing it. on the news and uh I don't remember if. they mentioned Texas city but um yeah I. mean this is stuff that was just stored. down there for like seven years soaking. up that warm kind of moist Mediterranean. Breeze uh not the way you should handle.

and store this stuff no and like the. story behind is kind of interesting like. the the it was started in Georgia not. our Georgia but the Republic of Georgia. um on way on route to mosm Beek and the. apparently the owners were like we're. not making enough money on this this. trip so we're going to divert over to um. Beirut and pick up some more freight and. the crew said no we're not going to do. that it's going to make the weight. dangerous so they bulked port fees. started racking up and the owners. apparently just decided to abandon the. crew the ship and the cargo the cargo.

once it was impounded should have been. sold off but it wasn't instead it just. like you said sat there stored. incorrectly for six years until. something caused it to blow up which is. I mean just the the idea that it was. just negligence that led to that. catastrophe is it's even worse I think. that's something that's missing from the. Texas city disaster there there wasn't. really any negligent act maybe a mistake. a bad choice but no one was particularly.

negligent about it so I think that's it. kind of makes the bayroot blast even. worse that people were supposed to be. doing stuff that they didn't do and a. lot of people died as a result yeah I. think the BP Refinery in 2005 they had. to pay out about 50 million bucks for. that one after they did a uh a little. safety audit and in that safety audit um. they found and this was before the blast. actually they did a safety audit and. they found that a a lot of people that. worked at this plant um it says came to.

work with quote an exceptional degree of. fear of catastrophic incidences yeah uh. incidents in quote that's a little bit. of a ocean nightmare everything that. I've read about that was that that was. the direct result of BP cutting safety. in favor of higher profit margins that. that's what happened that's what allowed. this plant to deteriorate and the. Machinery just didn't work but they. traced this explosion this is a oil. refinery explosion it had nothing to do. with ammonium nitrate. but the um the I think whatever whatever.

chemical they put in gas to boost the. octane level they turned a machine on. that does that and somehow like all. these components to the to gasoline. started vaporizing out into the air it. started shooting out of this Tower. because the pressure was overloaded and. there was so much gas vapor in the air. that somebody had a pickup truck running. nearby and it got sucked up into the air. intake and the engine started revving. and that's actually what ignited the. whole thing all of this gas vapor this.

pickup truck sucking in gas molecules. that were just vaporized in the air. around it crazy in Texas City. again it's. crazy so uh you got anything else I got. nothing else well if you want to know. more about the Texas city disaster uh. you can go look that up um I would. strongly recommend reading um Cheryl. lowers dorf Ross's changing lives in. heartbeat Journal article and also big.

shout out to fire engineering.com they. had a good one and then the local 1259. the Texas City Firefighters Union um has. a really comprehensive overview of the. Texas city disaster 2o so maybe check. those out for even more details and. since totally since I said that it's. time for listener. mail yeah I'm going to call this uh well. I'm going to call it what Ryan called it. well I'm dumb but I'm over. it hey guys long time first.

time uh I thought I'd tell you you had. me duped for a long time when I first. started listening to the show a few. years ago and probably for a year after. that first episode I honestly thought. there was a list of key words that Josh. referred to toward the end of the. episode whenever he says well since I. said blank it's time for listener. mail for an embar this is very cute for. an embarrassingly long time I really. thought that the blank words. was from a predetermined Master list and.

that you had revealed that list of words. to the audience in an early episode wow. I guess like the magic word in uh. peewee's Playhouse yeah was that what it. was yeah this guy wish to really love. peewee's. Playhouse I started listening to. increasingly older episodes in hopes. that I would hear that list or catch a. trend toward the words used Josh's. transition with that statement at the. end of every episode is just so smooth. hey there you go thanks man it wasn't. until one episode when Josh's word was.

so mundane so common it was probably the. or if or something along those lines. that I finally realized there is no list. I had been fooled the SC just fell from. his eyes and he was free finally well. since you said. scales uh those random words are just. that random I actually felt a bit. disappointed when I realized this but it. actually took some of the mystery out of. the show but I'm over it now uh whether. or not it's good to admit I'd been. fooled by this for a long time is Up For. Debate but been meaning to tell you. about this for a while. hope you think of me every time Josh. transitions to listener mail from now on.

I totally will yeah uh take care and. keep doing what you're doing cuz it's a. fantastic show and since I said show dot. dot dot mhm what that's great that is. from Ryan pesel thanks Ryan thanks for. getting in our heads like that. apparently we got in your heads too so. it's only fair don't you think. Chuck yeah and just right then I didn't. think we had a listener mail and then. look what pops up Ryan pesel saves the. day again and and only Ryan knows what. I'm talking about it just ruined his.

life again he's back in the game uh if. you want to get in touch with us and try. to get in our heads like Ryan did so we. have to think of you every time we say. something about listener mail or what. have you you can write to us send us an. email to stuff podcast at. iheartradio.com. [Music]. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts myart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or whereever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].