had been killed fires blazed all over town the survivors had no way to combat the flames for now all they could do was to try to pull the living from the wreckage before it was too late more explosions Texas city in a moment on the History Channel now we return to explosions Texas City [Music] the explosion of the cargo ship SS Grand comp on April 16 1947 hurled Texas City Texas into chaos in a matter of seconds [Music] the blast had ripped the ship apart red hot pieces of Steel were thrown nearly two miles away igniting oil tanks and chemical plants engulfing the Waterfront in fire harmless cargo became dangerous projectiles there's Big Balls of twine these things are thrown up like a rocket they're on fire and they're falling out into the bay a 150 foot barge called the longhorn 2 was thrown out of the harbor and into a parking lot radio reports began going out at 9 44 a.m just half an hour after the explosion some of the first broadcasts were pleased for help from The Rescuers you know it's a man listen to some ducks are down here to help these boys they in bad shape some of them so send us some help down here and help us out a little bit sightseers stay at home and listen to the radio and let them in that are down here do the work fires raged everywhere but with most of the town's firefighters dead and their equipment destroyed Texas city had no way to stop the blazes as flames danced over the city men who had not so long ago been on the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific organized search parties to rescue survivors there were a lot of veterans people knew how to take charge of things and and how to obey orders and when to obey orders newsreel Crews also mobilized relatives and Friends besieged officials the word of missing loved ones as blast and Flame continue to shatter the stunned Town Texas governor Jester appeals for all possible Aid and general Jonathan Wainwright hero of baton and commander of the fourth Army area directs military rescue workers worried about her family Lucy Garcia who had been in a high school bookkeeping exam headed toward the burning Waterfront I was passing all these people people screaming don't go there don't go there because it was just like a war that's what it was you're just so flabbergasted it's awesome to see all these people and I said my goodness what has happened look at all these dead bodies as men searched through the rubble of what used to be the Texas City terminal railroad building Joyce couch lay pinned under a support beam in her office she had been calling out for three hours but no one had heard her I prayed to both the Lord and blessed mother in my actual Contrition then I asked the Lord if I can't get out please let me die in peace and not lay here any longer and at that time I heard my dad call my name he helped puller from the wreckage she was badly wounded Texas City didn't have a hospital so Joyce faced a 10 mile trip to Galveston if she was going to survive the makeshift Aid stations that were being set up in Texas City were no match for the number of wounded pouring in but help arrived quickly it was just amazing how fast people from doctors from Baytown doctors from Houston fire trucks medication to bandages the Red Cross was there by 10 30 a.m less than two hours after the explosion Galveston Red Cross workers had set up field stations they needed thousands of bandages blood banks were running low water was hard to come by meanwhile Rescuers were digging through the ruins of building after building in hopes of finding survivors the Carnage left by the blast was shocking even to War veterans we picked up pieces this morning of people it's unbelievable legs hands feet people burned to where they looked like a piece of coal in Monsanto chemical they didn't have a chance to get out we also found people underneath flat cars which the bodies were blown away and I guess a compact from the explosion blew them underneath the wheels which had to be lifted with cranes and bulldozers to remove the bodies later that same day desperately needed supplies began to arrive from across the United States there's a new thing they just had for the second world war called penicillin and they used almost the nation's supply of penicillin in that time at Texas City trained as a medic in the war Roland Castanet rushed down to help at the clinic where his wife worked to ease their pain Roland gave the wounded shots of morphine many of those under his care were unrecognizable even close friends I didn't recognize it because she was covered with oil and asbestos she says Roland don't you recognize me and it was Mary Hunter who he had been going out with we had been out with that Friday and Saturday night because there was so much glass in Mary Hunter's body doctor sent her to the Galveston Hospital on the way over to Galveston then I heard the young men in the car saying well she's going to lose that arm as the injured were being rushed away from the scene firefighters from surrounding towns were speeding toward Texas City but at 8 pm the terror of the day was cruelly intensified the SS high flyer another freighter birthed at the Docks was on fire only a few were aware that like the grand comp it also carried a large cargo of ammonium nitrate the same kind of fertilizer that had detonated that morning still rumors that another explosion was imminent swept through the already exhausted and terrified community scared I don't know what's going to happen we're going to have another explosion you know we just had a good one we'll return with explosions Texas City here on the History Channel now back with more explosions Texas City hundreds of Texas City residents lay dead and thousands more were wounded by a horrific chemical explosion on the morning of April 16 1947. [Music] the town had been decimated and now another ship with the same dangerous cargo was Blazing in the harbor foreign s down for repairs the SS high flyer was dead in the water the blast that Center slamming into the Wilson B Keen another freighter doctor crossed the slip both ships were now hopelessly entangled the High Flyers potentially explosive cargo of nearly a thousand tons of ammonium nitrate made the ship a ticking time bomb Robert Morris had carried the wounded out of the destroyed Monsanto plant until late that evening we didn't see nitrate smoke until about eight o'clock that night and it really wasn't much sin but it was enough to know that it was on fire I gathered a few people who were still there I said let's get out of here I said the high flyer is going to blow at some point with all the chaos along the Waterfront not everyone was aware of the danger posed by the burning high flyer rescue people working down near the docks I didn't pay much attention the high flyer and it was not until about eight o'clock that they took cognizance of the fact that the high flyer was now on fire [Music] when they got this shocking news officials had to act quickly they called a shipping company in Galveston there are several Tugboat Crews volunteered for A Dangerous Mission tow the helpless high flyer from the port before it exploded [Music] they cast off at Texas City just after 10 pm when the volunteers arrived they found conditions worse than they had imagined even approaching the high flyer would be difficult the ship was enveloped in dense smoke and noxious fumes and the heat was so intense it could blister the skin despite the danger crewmen from the tugs climbed aboard the high flyer they used acetylene torches to cut the anchor chain hoping to free the entangled ship they tried to pull it just directly out by a couple of tugs in Tandem and could move it only about 50 feet it was now 1am and balls of fire was shooting from The High Flyers cargo hose the tugs retreated radio newsmen were reporting nearby there's been Kaplan kthd News Record I've just left mayor JC Tran of Texas City he believes that Federal authorities will make a complete investigation by the circumstances of the original explosion which set off the disaster here comes another explosion the sky we are bending down no one knows what it is but where we are we are more lying on the ground it may have been another bar as that went up this guy is still red we are all hitting the dirt I hope you can hear me this map cap on your kpht news director with the entire game kdhd news death lying down folks are running in the street within 10 feet of us here comes the van now have you come from the dock all I know is the ship that was being pulled away that they told us down there that was loaded with flour and it was not in the danger of it exploded it's insane power and lumber so I'll tell you one thing flower Lumber certainly blows and I'm not trying to be comic at a time like this either in reality the explosion was fueled by ammonium nitrate I was watching the fires and it a little after one o'clock the high flyer blue it was just like a big Skyrocket uh went up maybe three thousand feet a big ball of Fire for the second time in less than 24 hours a tremendous blast had rocked the Texas coast blinded in the first explosion Joyce couch lay in the hospital 10 miles away in Galveston oh yeah I Jarred my bed shook my bed and man that was the second blast you know the explosion of the high flyer created even more destruction The Inferno that almost blasted Texas and uncontrollable 29 fuel tanks storing hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil turn the light into a weird recollection of bombing missions over Europe after surviving the grand comp explosion Monsanto employee William Lane had gone back to his apartment in Galveston [Music] Lane stayed up listening as radio coverage of the disaster went on through the night [Music] and our problem dead by now these terrific explosions have sent hundreds of people to their deaths I began to hear the names of friends that I I lost the reaction just set in the next morning I couldn't shave I couldn't hold a safety razor to my face to shave that morning I was just such I looked in the mirror and she he just so lucky to be alive the survivors now face the search for missing loved ones for many that search would end among the more than 500 dead we'll return with the conclusion of explosions Texas City and now the conclusion of explosions Texas City the morning of April 17 1947 found Texas City Texas an even worse shape than it had been the previous day more than 550 people had been killed the town had suffered two catastrophic explosions creating Devastation seldom seen outside of War [Music] because most people had evacuated the Waterfront the explosion of the high flyer claimed only two victims but the destruction created by the second blast added to the horror most of the warehouses on the docks were now completely obliterated or were burning down one out of every three homes in Texas City had been destroyed volunteer firefighters from as far away as Houston had gathered to fight the blazes caused by the two explosions [Music] in radio reports rescue officials tried to sound upbeat [Music] uh out of the grain elevator and the boys are now working on the uh on the docks I was going to say over here in this thing as well under control so you forced to have these balls over here is fighting these fires don't worry about them they're all okay and they're doing a bang-up job we have to do a good job Coast Guard vessels attempted to put out the fires still raging on the docks [Music] as the second day of the disaster wore on Shell Shocked survivors faced the Grim task of collecting and identifying the Dead [Music] a temporary morgue was set up at an auto repair shop when that was full the dead were taken to the local high school [Music] they were put in a high school gym where I played basketball when I was in high school and they were lined up in rows covered neatly their personal effects were taken off of them label for that body and so forth a list of the identified dead was kept on a chalkboard searching the gymnasium was a last resort for desperate Texas City residents [Music] because many of the bodies were charred beyond recognition or had been blown to Pieces identification became extremely difficult the Texas Department of Public Safety and forensic Specialists from the FBI were called in [Music] many bodies had to be identified by