City on Fire
The Forgotten Disaster That Devastated a Town and Ignited a Landmark Legal Battle
In 1947, Texas City was experiencing boom times, bristling with chemical and oil plants, built to fuel Europe's seemingly endless appetite for the raw materials needed to rebuild its ruined cities. When an explosion ripped through its docks, the effect was cataclysmic. Thousands of people were wounded or killed, the fire department was decimated, planes were shot out of the sky, and massive ocean-bound freighters disintegrated. The blast knocked people to their knees in Galveston, ten miles away; broke windows in Houston, forty miles away; and rattled a seismograph in Denver, Colorado. Chaos reigned, the military was scrambled, the FBI launched investigations -- and ordinary citizens turned into heroes.
For months on end, the brave residents of what had once been an average American town struggled to restore their families, their homes, their lives. And they also struggled to confront another welling nightmare-the possibility that the tragedy that almost erased their city from existence might have been caused by the very government they thought would protect them.
City on Fire is a pai
Fires -- Texas -- Texas City -- History -- 20th century.
Disasters -- Texas -- Texas City -- History -- 20th century.
Industrial accidents -- Texas -- Texas City -- History -- 20th century.
Texas City (Tex.) -- History -- 20th century.
Texas City (Tex.) -- Biography.
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
HISTORY Disaster Min | Main (Downtown) | Third Level, Nonfiction | In |