On April 16, 1947, a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp ignited ammonium nitrate and other explosives in the ship’s hold. This caused a massive blast and much of Texas City was destroyed. The town was an industrial city on Galveston Bay with oil refineries and chemical plants. The homes there were mostly wood. The Grandcamp explosion was the most devastating industrial accident in U.S. history, with 600 people killed and more than 3,000 wounded.
