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City on Fire: The Forgotten Disaster That Devastated a Town and Ignited a Landmark Legal Battle
On a day that dawned with brisk breezes, a clear sky, and perfect temperatures, the small town of Texas City suddenly found itself facing the greatest industrial disaster in the most industrialized nation on the planet. And, in time, the survivors of that all-American city found themselves wondering if their own government had delivered them into this hell on earth. 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 painstakingly researched saga of one of the most profound but forgotten disasters in American history. The Texas City Disaster was a searing, apocalyptic event that had an enormous ripple effect for millions of people around the world. It changed the way Americans respond to disasters and the way people viewed the American government -- the Texas City Disaster opened the door for average Americans to confront their government and its leaders in the nation's courts of law. It was the first time that the United States of America was named as a defendant in a case that, after a series of dizzying twists and turns, would end up in the nation's highest court. Ultimately, the story of Texas City is a story of courage, humanity, bravery, and a painful quest for justice. It is the story of ordinary Americans behaving in extraordinary ways -- and serving as role models for dignity and grace.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
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726 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
July 8, 2016
Great book about a disaster that many people don't seem to know about. The book is about what happened to Texas City, Texas when the SS Grandcamp caught fire with ammonium nitrate fertilizer on board. It also describes the aftermath and the legal issues that followed. This is a re-read for me prior to a trip to Houston, Texas. One of the places we plan to visit is Texas City. If you enjoy unknown history of the US, I suggest this reading this one.
July 28, 2023
Ever heard of the Texas City Disaster? No? I'm not surprised. It's not a story that gets told a lot these days, particularly if you don't live on the Texas Gulf Coast. I picked up this book because I grew up next door to Texas City, and my grandparents and father, then a boy of six, lived there in 1947 when the disaster occurred, and they would never forget it for the rest of their lives. They fortunately lived far enough away that they weren't directly affected beyond having their windows blown out (like many for miles around), and a red-hot chunk of fist-sized shrapnel from the S.S. Grandcamp landed not far from their house. When it was cool enough to handle, my grandfather picked it up and kept it as a souvenir, and he later gave it to my father, who passed it on to my brother. Lots of local people who have lived in or near Galveston County for a few generations can still recount to you how their grandparents were involved.
The story of the disaster is worth telling, and it's worth telling with some outrage. The overall story of Texas City is an age-old story of Capitalism at work. A few rich white men got much richer. A lot of poor people, many of them people of color, got substandard living conditions and difficult, dangerous jobs that didn't pay half what they should have. Industry either ignored safety standards or prevented them from being implemented at all because they interfered with making money as fast as possible. The town of Texas City was starved of public funds for years and then got handed a disaster it wasn't remotely prepared to handle. Galveston County got several Superfund sites which still aren't cleaned up today.
You can see this pattern still repeating all over the country today, and one glaring recent example is the Texas Freeze of February 2021: Industry opposes regulation (with help from its cronies in the government), does things its own way, focuses on lining its own pockets, and is totally unprepared for a disaster, either natural, or in the case of Texas City 1947, of its own making. Ordinary citizens pay the price in wrecked homes and lives. It richly deserves an expose, possibly one told with some heat as well as journalistic objectivity.
But nothing prepared me for the absurdly hard-boiled writing between the covers of this book. Bill Minutaglio is trying to tell us not just an impassioned expose, but a self-consciously grandiose suspense novel in a style that's sort of “Tom Clancy meets Dashiell Hammett.” And not in a good way. His first stylistic mistake was telling this factual historical account entirely in the present tense, and it just got worse from there. Some of his other favorite techniques seem to be: a detailed cast of characters with a constantly hopping viewpoint and chapter headings that read like the dramatis personae from a community college play (“The Priest,” “The Mayor,” “The Sea Captain's Wife,” “The Scientist,”); recounting the characters' internal thoughts as though he's an omniscient narrator; and heavily sprinkling the text with ostensibly dramatic, often repetitive, one-line paragraphs for emphasis.
The first third of the book is largely setting the scene and introducing the cast of characters in far more detail than was necessary. Everywhere in this section, characters are macho-smoking, gulping bad coffee, stopping their cars to stare moodily out the window before driving away again, etc. If there were any way to work in a gorgeous dame striding into a cynical gumshoe's office on a storm-lashed night, I'm sure he would have done it. And I began to wonder how many times we really needed to be reminded that a blue-collar petrochemical port town in 1947 Texas had both prostitution and rampant racism. I kept at it because I wanted to know the historical details of what happened, but it wasn't long before I was outright hate-reading.
The middle third is a great improvement because it consists primarily of a minute-by-minute account of what happened on the day of the disaster and during the terrible aftermath, mostly as seen by Mayor Curtis Trahan. Here, the choice to use present tense makes much more sense. It reminded me vividly of reading about 9/11. The physical devastation, the efforts to rescue the living and identify the dead, the relief workers pouring in from all over the country, and it was all complicated by the many petrochemical fires raging in the plants along the docks. They ran out of water to fight the fires, and then they ran out of tags for the dead bodies. The descriptions of the bodies that came into the high school gym turned makeshift morgue reminded me viscerally of Judy Melinek's account of the work of identifying the 9/11 casualties in Working Stiff. Like those victims, these bodies were burned, lacerated, crushed, blown apart and found in bits, some had been floating in the harbor, and all were coated in petrochemical muck that had to be cleaned off before identification could even begin.
The final third (or really, quarter) is the brief story of the lawsuit that resulted, Dalehite v. United States, which began in federal court in Houston and went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and thence to Congress, resulting in the Federal Tort Claims Act, which for the first time in American history gave private citizens the right to compensation for injuries negligently caused by the U.S. government. Unfortunately, the compensation that was made available under the Act was capped at $25,000 – not a reasonable settlement for a wrongful death suit even in those days, so the plaintiffs were ultimately sent home with a pathetic pittance that took over a decade to recover.
I'm sorry to say that Minutaglio was wrong – I did not in fact learn about the Dalehite case in law school. And as a lawyer, I had so many questions, like why they chose to sue the federal government but not any of the petrochemical giants like Monsanto and Union Carbide, who had direct control over the handling of the ammonium nitrate, knew its dangers, were in the best position to implement safety standards, and utterly failed to do so. My guess is the industry had such a chokehold on Texas City that they were deemed even harder targets than the distant federal government. As a lawyer who likes legal stories, I personally wanted more from this final section of the book, but I admit it's probably told in enough detail to satisfy the lay reader.
2.5 stars, rounded up to 3, with the lower rating primarily due to the awfulness of the first third.
The story of the disaster is worth telling, and it's worth telling with some outrage. The overall story of Texas City is an age-old story of Capitalism at work. A few rich white men got much richer. A lot of poor people, many of them people of color, got substandard living conditions and difficult, dangerous jobs that didn't pay half what they should have. Industry either ignored safety standards or prevented them from being implemented at all because they interfered with making money as fast as possible. The town of Texas City was starved of public funds for years and then got handed a disaster it wasn't remotely prepared to handle. Galveston County got several Superfund sites which still aren't cleaned up today.
You can see this pattern still repeating all over the country today, and one glaring recent example is the Texas Freeze of February 2021: Industry opposes regulation (with help from its cronies in the government), does things its own way, focuses on lining its own pockets, and is totally unprepared for a disaster, either natural, or in the case of Texas City 1947, of its own making. Ordinary citizens pay the price in wrecked homes and lives. It richly deserves an expose, possibly one told with some heat as well as journalistic objectivity.
But nothing prepared me for the absurdly hard-boiled writing between the covers of this book. Bill Minutaglio is trying to tell us not just an impassioned expose, but a self-consciously grandiose suspense novel in a style that's sort of “Tom Clancy meets Dashiell Hammett.” And not in a good way. His first stylistic mistake was telling this factual historical account entirely in the present tense, and it just got worse from there. Some of his other favorite techniques seem to be: a detailed cast of characters with a constantly hopping viewpoint and chapter headings that read like the dramatis personae from a community college play (“The Priest,” “The Mayor,” “The Sea Captain's Wife,” “The Scientist,”); recounting the characters' internal thoughts as though he's an omniscient narrator; and heavily sprinkling the text with ostensibly dramatic, often repetitive, one-line paragraphs for emphasis.
The first third of the book is largely setting the scene and introducing the cast of characters in far more detail than was necessary. Everywhere in this section, characters are macho-smoking, gulping bad coffee, stopping their cars to stare moodily out the window before driving away again, etc. If there were any way to work in a gorgeous dame striding into a cynical gumshoe's office on a storm-lashed night, I'm sure he would have done it. And I began to wonder how many times we really needed to be reminded that a blue-collar petrochemical port town in 1947 Texas had both prostitution and rampant racism. I kept at it because I wanted to know the historical details of what happened, but it wasn't long before I was outright hate-reading.
The middle third is a great improvement because it consists primarily of a minute-by-minute account of what happened on the day of the disaster and during the terrible aftermath, mostly as seen by Mayor Curtis Trahan. Here, the choice to use present tense makes much more sense. It reminded me vividly of reading about 9/11. The physical devastation, the efforts to rescue the living and identify the dead, the relief workers pouring in from all over the country, and it was all complicated by the many petrochemical fires raging in the plants along the docks. They ran out of water to fight the fires, and then they ran out of tags for the dead bodies. The descriptions of the bodies that came into the high school gym turned makeshift morgue reminded me viscerally of Judy Melinek's account of the work of identifying the 9/11 casualties in Working Stiff. Like those victims, these bodies were burned, lacerated, crushed, blown apart and found in bits, some had been floating in the harbor, and all were coated in petrochemical muck that had to be cleaned off before identification could even begin.
The final third (or really, quarter) is the brief story of the lawsuit that resulted, Dalehite v. United States, which began in federal court in Houston and went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and thence to Congress, resulting in the Federal Tort Claims Act, which for the first time in American history gave private citizens the right to compensation for injuries negligently caused by the U.S. government. Unfortunately, the compensation that was made available under the Act was capped at $25,000 – not a reasonable settlement for a wrongful death suit even in those days, so the plaintiffs were ultimately sent home with a pathetic pittance that took over a decade to recover.
I'm sorry to say that Minutaglio was wrong – I did not in fact learn about the Dalehite case in law school. And as a lawyer, I had so many questions, like why they chose to sue the federal government but not any of the petrochemical giants like Monsanto and Union Carbide, who had direct control over the handling of the ammonium nitrate, knew its dangers, were in the best position to implement safety standards, and utterly failed to do so. My guess is the industry had such a chokehold on Texas City that they were deemed even harder targets than the distant federal government. As a lawyer who likes legal stories, I personally wanted more from this final section of the book, but I admit it's probably told in enough detail to satisfy the lay reader.
2.5 stars, rounded up to 3, with the lower rating primarily due to the awfulness of the first third.
March 19, 2016
The reason I read this book was because my book club listed "City on Fire" as our next read, but there were two of this title at the library: the newer, fiction from 2015 and this, a non-fiction. I could have called or sent a text for the author's name, but instead I simply read both. And I liked this one better. Even though I'd lived in Texas for a number of years, I'd never heard about this Texas City disaster. Why do we bury our disasters? As of 2003 (the publication date of this book), why did Texas still have "the greatest percentage of toxic emissions in the country" along with numerous reported odd illnesses? Apparently we don't learn a thing: the current water issue in Flint, Michigan comes immediately to mind. "City on Fire" is a well-researched but stripped-to-the-bone account of this "forgotten" disaster. Minutaglio isn't a show-off author: just because a researcher knows everything doesn't mean he/she should include it. This author also wrote a book about "George W. Bush" and I think it might likewise be an honest, bare-boned account so I might give that a try.
July 14, 2008
Great book on an unheard-of disaster. Well, at least I never heard of it and I'm sure other people haven't either. Remarkable that so many things, so much stupidity could lead to such a devastating event. Yet another book that goes to show how money is more important than people and when you try to get help from your government, you're shunned. These poor people living in the shadows of war and post-war production of dangerous chemicals and materials never even knew what hit them. What a slap in the face too that these people couldn't get a dime from their government while their government was at the same time handing over millions of dollars to people in Japan and Germany for their losses. Great book if you like disasters and the litigation surrounding them. Easy and quick book to read for anyone.
July 10, 2012
This was an excellent book I read in about a week, which is very fast for me! I could hardly put it down. A very thorough and engaging book about the Texas City Disaster in 1947, when a ship carrying ammonium nitrite exploded and killed 581 or more people. The true number of dead will never be known. I can recommend this book but beware of the chapter immediately following the explosion for harrowing descriptions of some injuries and deaths. The explosion was followed by a landmark legal case, covered in the last few chapters of the book.
February 27, 2021
Just a normal week day in Texas City in April of 1947. When the ammonium nitrate being loaded onto the GrandCamP in hold No. 4 catches fire. Soon, over a million pounds of it will explode, setting off a chain reaction in Texas City with the nearby chemical and oil plants. It will be the largest disaster on American soil, and the largest insurance claim ever filed for a single loss ( the Monsanto plant) and it will kick off the first law suit where the U.S. is the defendant.
It read a bit sensational, and the portion about the trial is a little hurried. But the stories about the people are devastating and not easily forgotten. It is a bit graphic at times. It’s unthinkable that something that could have been avoided became unavoidable because of lack of safety measures and transparency. There is a lot of socioeconomic background on the region to, which I enjoyed because I live near where this happened, and well...it’s Texas. This tragedy is all but forgotten today.
It read a bit sensational, and the portion about the trial is a little hurried. But the stories about the people are devastating and not easily forgotten. It is a bit graphic at times. It’s unthinkable that something that could have been avoided became unavoidable because of lack of safety measures and transparency. There is a lot of socioeconomic background on the region to, which I enjoyed because I live near where this happened, and well...it’s Texas. This tragedy is all but forgotten today.
January 22, 2020
I have so much to say about this book.
City on Fire: The Forgotten Disaster That Devastated a Town and Ignited a Landmark Legal Battle is as illuminating, thrilling, and shocking as it is devastating, appalling, and enraging.
City on Fire is a painstakingly researched book about the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history- one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions, and the first-ever class action lawsuit against the United States government.
When the explosion happened the morning of April 16, 1947, Texas City, Texas was in peak postwar prosperity as a deep-water port on Texas' Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and petrochemical-manufacturing center with surrounding chemical and oil tanks storage.
The Grandcamp, a 437-foot-long Liberty ship carrying small arms ammunition, machinery, and bales of sisal twine had arrived from Houston, where the port authority did not permit loading of ammonium nitrate.
The Grandcamp was docked near the adjacent warehouse filled with tons of ammonium nitrate and three other ships loaded down with the same fertilizer and sulfur that was intended for export to farmers in Europe. The ammonium nitrate was packaged in paper sacks despite a critical relative humidity of 59.4% , mixed with a unstable mixture to avoid moisture caking, and stored at higher temperatures that increased its chemical activity.
Around 8:00 a.m. smoke was spotted in the cargo hold of the Grandcamp and the burgeoning fire attracted spectators from the city along the shoreline. Kids played hooky from school, workers took an early lunch break and people around town migrated to the docks to watch the firefighters work.
When the vessel detonated, the explosion destroyed the Monsanto Chemical Company plant and resulted in ignition of refineries and chemical tanks on the waterfront. The two other ammonium nitrate loaded ships eventually detonated, causing more damage to an already unimaginable tragedy. The situation was exacerbate when years of spills and runoff from refineries ignited the polluted water and the toxic air in the port. The list of fatalities is still uncertain because those closest to the blast were completely vaporized and nobody knows how many undocumented dock workers and uncounted minorities might have died.
Wait, it gets worse.
A few months before the explosions, Congress finally passed The Federal Tort Claims Act. That new law stated that the U.S. government could be held accountable- the same way that private citizens could be held accountable for their actions.
For the first time in history, under the recently enacted Federal Tort Claims Act, America was going to court as the defendant, pitting virtually everyone who lives in one small Gulf Coast town against their government.
Elizabeth Dalehite vs. United States, was a long, uphill battle against every disadvantage the U.S. government could devise against admitting responsibility of the Texas City Disaster. Hearing the case was the legendary seventy-three year old judge Thomas M. Kennerly who's philosophy was inflexible: The King Could Do No Wrong.
Surprising everyone involved, the notorious pro-sovereign-immunity judge found the United States guilty.
"The Record discloses blunders, mistakes and acts of negligence, both of omission and commission, on the part of Defendant, its agents, servants and employees...
"It discloses such disregard of and lack of care for the safety of the public and of persons....as to shock one...
"When all the facts of this Record are considered, one is not surprised by the Texas City Disaster, i.e., that men and women, boys and girls, in and around Texas City going about their daily tasks in their homes, on the streets, in their places of employment, etc., were suddenly and without warning killed, maimed and wounded....The surprising thing is that there were not more of such disasters."
"It practically wiped out Texas City... it was dangerous to manufacture, dangerous to ship, dangerous to use."
"Defendant was negligent in failing to inspect and test...defendant was negligent in the manner in which it marked and labeled... defendant was negligent in delivering Fertilizer... the negligence of the defendant reached its peak when... it was shipped entirely across the nation to Texas City. and defendant did nothing to protect either those handling it or the public against the danger."
"It will not do to say that defendant... could not reasonably foresee that more than five hundred persons would be killed, many persons injured, and that there would be vast property damage...
Defendant did know."
Wait. It. Gets. Worse.
The complete rejection of CIVIL ACTION 787 is boiled down to one word:
"Discretion."
The justices determined that the leaders of the United States, beginning with the president, maintain the right to exercise their own "discretion" in matters of vital interest to the nation- even if their plans are faulty, even if their plans are wickedly dangerous to innocent, unsuspecting Americans, "even if some danger were recognized. "
The United States and its leaders are allowed to take a "calculated risk" with its powerful explosives and with its people.
I think this book is an absolute essential read for everyone.
City on Fire: The Forgotten Disaster That Devastated a Town and Ignited a Landmark Legal Battle is as illuminating, thrilling, and shocking as it is devastating, appalling, and enraging.
City on Fire is a painstakingly researched book about the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history- one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions, and the first-ever class action lawsuit against the United States government.
When the explosion happened the morning of April 16, 1947, Texas City, Texas was in peak postwar prosperity as a deep-water port on Texas' Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and petrochemical-manufacturing center with surrounding chemical and oil tanks storage.
The Grandcamp, a 437-foot-long Liberty ship carrying small arms ammunition, machinery, and bales of sisal twine had arrived from Houston, where the port authority did not permit loading of ammonium nitrate.
The Grandcamp was docked near the adjacent warehouse filled with tons of ammonium nitrate and three other ships loaded down with the same fertilizer and sulfur that was intended for export to farmers in Europe. The ammonium nitrate was packaged in paper sacks despite a critical relative humidity of 59.4% , mixed with a unstable mixture to avoid moisture caking, and stored at higher temperatures that increased its chemical activity.
Around 8:00 a.m. smoke was spotted in the cargo hold of the Grandcamp and the burgeoning fire attracted spectators from the city along the shoreline. Kids played hooky from school, workers took an early lunch break and people around town migrated to the docks to watch the firefighters work.
When the vessel detonated, the explosion destroyed the Monsanto Chemical Company plant and resulted in ignition of refineries and chemical tanks on the waterfront. The two other ammonium nitrate loaded ships eventually detonated, causing more damage to an already unimaginable tragedy. The situation was exacerbate when years of spills and runoff from refineries ignited the polluted water and the toxic air in the port. The list of fatalities is still uncertain because those closest to the blast were completely vaporized and nobody knows how many undocumented dock workers and uncounted minorities might have died.
Wait, it gets worse.
A few months before the explosions, Congress finally passed The Federal Tort Claims Act. That new law stated that the U.S. government could be held accountable- the same way that private citizens could be held accountable for their actions.
For the first time in history, under the recently enacted Federal Tort Claims Act, America was going to court as the defendant, pitting virtually everyone who lives in one small Gulf Coast town against their government.
Elizabeth Dalehite vs. United States, was a long, uphill battle against every disadvantage the U.S. government could devise against admitting responsibility of the Texas City Disaster. Hearing the case was the legendary seventy-three year old judge Thomas M. Kennerly who's philosophy was inflexible: The King Could Do No Wrong.
Surprising everyone involved, the notorious pro-sovereign-immunity judge found the United States guilty.
"The Record discloses blunders, mistakes and acts of negligence, both of omission and commission, on the part of Defendant, its agents, servants and employees...
"It discloses such disregard of and lack of care for the safety of the public and of persons....as to shock one...
"When all the facts of this Record are considered, one is not surprised by the Texas City Disaster, i.e., that men and women, boys and girls, in and around Texas City going about their daily tasks in their homes, on the streets, in their places of employment, etc., were suddenly and without warning killed, maimed and wounded....The surprising thing is that there were not more of such disasters."
"It practically wiped out Texas City... it was dangerous to manufacture, dangerous to ship, dangerous to use."
"Defendant was negligent in failing to inspect and test...defendant was negligent in the manner in which it marked and labeled... defendant was negligent in delivering Fertilizer... the negligence of the defendant reached its peak when... it was shipped entirely across the nation to Texas City. and defendant did nothing to protect either those handling it or the public against the danger."
"It will not do to say that defendant... could not reasonably foresee that more than five hundred persons would be killed, many persons injured, and that there would be vast property damage...
Defendant did know."
Wait. It. Gets. Worse.
The complete rejection of CIVIL ACTION 787 is boiled down to one word:
"Discretion."
The justices determined that the leaders of the United States, beginning with the president, maintain the right to exercise their own "discretion" in matters of vital interest to the nation- even if their plans are faulty, even if their plans are wickedly dangerous to innocent, unsuspecting Americans, "even if some danger were recognized. "
The United States and its leaders are allowed to take a "calculated risk" with its powerful explosives and with its people.
I think this book is an absolute essential read for everyone.
June 15, 2025
Tragic story that I need to keep learning more about as I'm not sure if this work presented the comprehensive review of the 1947 tragedy, and certainly not on its aftermath. I don't understand why the author chose to write much of his book in the present tense - a personal bugaboo for me when reading history.
July 6, 2025
As a great granddaughter of one of the men never found, this book was very informative and gave me insight into a chapter of my family history that was only ever mentioned in passing.
June 13, 2009
Isn't it amazing what we take for granted? Safety is not a given and a small thing can forever alter the world as we know it.
I live just a few miles up the road from where this occurred and have visited the sites since, including the small cemetery. What a tragedy for this small town.
I live just a few miles up the road from where this occurred and have visited the sites since, including the small cemetery. What a tragedy for this small town.
July 26, 2009
Hundreds of people were killed when a ship
containing ammonium nitrate caught on fire
and then exploded in Texas City, Texas in 1947.
containing ammonium nitrate caught on fire
and then exploded in Texas City, Texas in 1947.
September 7, 2010
I found the writing style a bit choppy at first, as the book jumps from 1st person narrator to 1st person narrator. Still overall an engaging book about a horrible disaster I'd never heard of.
January 26, 2011
This is a great story about a long-forgotten moment in US History. It is also, for me a family story. I was surprised to find my great-grandparents' experiences recounted in the book.
July 23, 2014
Essential reading for fans of American history and/or non-fiction 'novels.' This tragic chronicle of the April 1947 "Texas City Disaster" is more compelling than the dry title may suggest.
January 17, 2022
Pop Quiz… what happened on April 16, 1947, in Texas City, Texas? Prior to reading Bill Minutaglio’s book City on Fire, I blindly would have guessed a hurricane. Now I know better. I know the nation’s nascent Age of Chemistry and the growing Cold War combined in a violent explosion that killed hundreds of people and maimed hundreds more. I’ll share more about the disaster in an upcoming Disasters in History presentation; this post is about the book itself.
The book emphasizes many of the survivors that Minutaglio and his researchers interviewed. The emphasis was too heavy for me based on the book’s subtitle that suggested an emphasis on a disaster and a landmark legal battle. Understanding a disaster of this magnitude is easier and more heartfelt with a human element, but there were times when I wondered if their actions, thoughts, and comments had been fabricated. The author didn’t seem to question the memories despite all the neurological research into how memories change.
The author also compressed time as he described the explosion. It seems that seconds after the explosion, residents made an orchestrated effort to use a garage as a morgue. In portraying survivors as ordinary heroes, he omitted any weakness or emotions or even fear after an explosion leveled their town. I can’t buy that a town in 1947 that had done little to no emergency planning would unite so stoically across racial divides within minutes of an explosion that produced a mushroom cloud, registered on the Richter scale, launched a local tsunami, and killed 500+ people who had gathered near the docks to watch a ship with burning cargo. I also question how so many state and federal resources were able to mobilize within 30 minutes in an era lacking cell phones. During crises our human brains lose track of time, slowing it and accelerating it. The author ignores that aspect of memory, too. Yes, it was interesting to read, but it didn’t seem as realistic as a well-researched history should seem.
Minutaglio also shorted the “landmark legal battle,” cramming the first attempt of Americans to sue their own government into a paltry 40 pages. As one third of the subtitle, it only received a sixth of the pages. I certainly don’t envy the thought of reviewing 80,000 pages of testimony and related records, but surely this landmark case deserved more scrutiny from such an acclaimed author.
One final topic of complaint. The author’s descriptions of injuries were gratuitous at times: a decapitated woman still running while holding the hand of a child (Is that even possible?!). And he referred to a black substance (oil?) that covered victims so thoroughly that many patients were assigned to “Negro Sections” of hospitals. He ignored (or didn’t share) the epidemiology of blast injuries, chemical injuries, and burns. Instead, he focused on grisly appearances of trauma. He also left readers to wonder what caused the shipment of ammonium nitrate to ignite in the first place.
Clearly I have work to do in order to transform this incident into a risk reduction presentation. This book will be the seed for my research, but it created far more questions than it answered.
The book emphasizes many of the survivors that Minutaglio and his researchers interviewed. The emphasis was too heavy for me based on the book’s subtitle that suggested an emphasis on a disaster and a landmark legal battle. Understanding a disaster of this magnitude is easier and more heartfelt with a human element, but there were times when I wondered if their actions, thoughts, and comments had been fabricated. The author didn’t seem to question the memories despite all the neurological research into how memories change.
The author also compressed time as he described the explosion. It seems that seconds after the explosion, residents made an orchestrated effort to use a garage as a morgue. In portraying survivors as ordinary heroes, he omitted any weakness or emotions or even fear after an explosion leveled their town. I can’t buy that a town in 1947 that had done little to no emergency planning would unite so stoically across racial divides within minutes of an explosion that produced a mushroom cloud, registered on the Richter scale, launched a local tsunami, and killed 500+ people who had gathered near the docks to watch a ship with burning cargo. I also question how so many state and federal resources were able to mobilize within 30 minutes in an era lacking cell phones. During crises our human brains lose track of time, slowing it and accelerating it. The author ignores that aspect of memory, too. Yes, it was interesting to read, but it didn’t seem as realistic as a well-researched history should seem.
Minutaglio also shorted the “landmark legal battle,” cramming the first attempt of Americans to sue their own government into a paltry 40 pages. As one third of the subtitle, it only received a sixth of the pages. I certainly don’t envy the thought of reviewing 80,000 pages of testimony and related records, but surely this landmark case deserved more scrutiny from such an acclaimed author.
One final topic of complaint. The author’s descriptions of injuries were gratuitous at times: a decapitated woman still running while holding the hand of a child (Is that even possible?!). And he referred to a black substance (oil?) that covered victims so thoroughly that many patients were assigned to “Negro Sections” of hospitals. He ignored (or didn’t share) the epidemiology of blast injuries, chemical injuries, and burns. Instead, he focused on grisly appearances of trauma. He also left readers to wonder what caused the shipment of ammonium nitrate to ignite in the first place.
Clearly I have work to do in order to transform this incident into a risk reduction presentation. This book will be the seed for my research, but it created far more questions than it answered.
July 25, 2021
It is hard to imagine the wave of destruction that passed over Texas City in that fateful moment. It is heart wrenching as he describes the town folk heading to port to see what all the excitement is about and what is causing such strange colored flames knowing the devastation that is about to be visited upon them.
Bill Minutaglio not only brings a detailed look at what happened before, during and after the explosion; he mostly definitely brings the human element to the story. He brings to live those that died and those that lived through this disaster. He describes how ordinary people became heroes in response to the catastrophe that lay before them.
It is a great book to read just to see what people are capable of what put to extraordinary circumstances. The book does a great job of laying out the segregation of society at that time and how that had such a significant impact on everything.
For anyone involved in emergency management, this book should be required reading as it lays out how in literally the blink of an eye one's world can be turned upside down and the time for action is at hand.
Bill Minutaglio not only brings a detailed look at what happened before, during and after the explosion; he mostly definitely brings the human element to the story. He brings to live those that died and those that lived through this disaster. He describes how ordinary people became heroes in response to the catastrophe that lay before them.
It is a great book to read just to see what people are capable of what put to extraordinary circumstances. The book does a great job of laying out the segregation of society at that time and how that had such a significant impact on everything.
For anyone involved in emergency management, this book should be required reading as it lays out how in literally the blink of an eye one's world can be turned upside down and the time for action is at hand.
January 25, 2026
As a volunteer firefighter serving not far from Texas City, the 1947 disaster is part of our local firefighting history. We are acutely aware that all but one member of the Texas City Volunteer Fire Department died that day serving their city, and we carry that known risk close to our hearts every day on each call we respond to. Unfortunately, the Texas City Volunteer Fire Department and their Fire Chief garner only light coverage in this book, with the mayor, priest, ship captain, and other individuals receiving most of the detailed research, character development, and back story. The individuals who are profiled in detail are done so with care and dignity, in a way I wish was applied to the fire department as well. Additionally, the firefighting response, tactics, and continued mutual aid operations for weeks following the disaster are just briefly mentioned, which is disappointing given the title of the book, while the details of the ensuing legal battles that comprise the last sections of the book are mundane and tiring.
June 27, 2021
I had never heard of this disaster before, and I am actually not sure how I managed to come across this book. It is possible that it was on a list of disaster books that I Googled. At any rate, I learned a lot of information from this book. It covered multiple people and perspectives of the events. I cannot imagine living through something like that. I can understand why it was described by so many as hell on earth. It seems like this would be something that was mentioned at some point during school, but I had to take Tennessee History and I didn't learn anything interesting the whole time I had to take that. I wonder if this was mentioned in Texas state history, but other reviews of native Texans suggest it wasn't common knowledge. This was a really dramatic and horrific read. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Texas, United States History, or disasters.
March 25, 2025
This is a very interesting telling of the subject disaster story. I was particularly fascinated about how life has changed. In 1947, apparently kids and everyone else could go wandering around an industrial site. Everyone seems to be smoking in a ground zero chemical zone. And so on. Then later, after years of going through courts up to the Supreme Court, the town was told tough luck; federal government, who made and shipped the explosive, has no responsibility.
I would give it a 4 star except that the book has no map. Hardly a page goes by without a reference to some location, but I hadn't the slightest clue where anything is relative to anything else. It robs alot from understanding of the narrative. Its not a cheap volume-nice glossy pictures, but missing the most important thing. Very disappointed by that.
I would give it a 4 star except that the book has no map. Hardly a page goes by without a reference to some location, but I hadn't the slightest clue where anything is relative to anything else. It robs alot from understanding of the narrative. Its not a cheap volume-nice glossy pictures, but missing the most important thing. Very disappointed by that.
September 15, 2020
This was a difficult book to read. Not because of the complex ideas or because the writing was not good, it was excellent But, rather, because of the subject matter and the abject failure of the law.
On April 16, 1947 more than 600 citizens of Texas City were killed, and hundreds more injured when a cargo ship loaded with ammonia nitrate blew up in the port. Devastation. A subsequent court case against the US government went to the Supreme Court and the court found in favor of the government.
It wasn’t until years later that then Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, pushed through the claim that some benefits were paid to a limited number of survivors.
Note: The US government can be sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
On April 16, 1947 more than 600 citizens of Texas City were killed, and hundreds more injured when a cargo ship loaded with ammonia nitrate blew up in the port. Devastation. A subsequent court case against the US government went to the Supreme Court and the court found in favor of the government.
It wasn’t until years later that then Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, pushed through the claim that some benefits were paid to a limited number of survivors.
Note: The US government can be sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
September 9, 2021
A complete (and often gory) retelling of a forgotten disaster.
Not just a dry retelling of the facts, the author dives into the emotional response to the disaster and the effect it had on the lives of hard-working people. Focusing on the some of the key people of the disaster - the Mayor, the Fire Chief, longshoreman, the company men, and the children and widows of the dead - brought the story to life. I also appreciated weaving in some of the historical themes of post-war America - the Cold War, race relations, etc - and how they figured into the explosion.
A very good read. It was somewhat gory in a few spots in its description of the disaster but not too bad.
Not just a dry retelling of the facts, the author dives into the emotional response to the disaster and the effect it had on the lives of hard-working people. Focusing on the some of the key people of the disaster - the Mayor, the Fire Chief, longshoreman, the company men, and the children and widows of the dead - brought the story to life. I also appreciated weaving in some of the historical themes of post-war America - the Cold War, race relations, etc - and how they figured into the explosion.
A very good read. It was somewhat gory in a few spots in its description of the disaster but not too bad.
December 2, 2024
Compelling
I've lived in Texas for 67years , My mother and all of her family were born in Texas. In all this time I had never been taught or told anything about this Texas City disaster. I could not believe it was true at first so I went to my computer immediately after finishing the book. I have never read a more compelling book. I love this country and the state of Texas, the stupidity of the government and the naivety of the population never ceases to amaze me and I continue to question why we as a country never learn from our mistakes. This book and the story it tells should be required reading and studying for all
I've lived in Texas for 67years , My mother and all of her family were born in Texas. In all this time I had never been taught or told anything about this Texas City disaster. I could not believe it was true at first so I went to my computer immediately after finishing the book. I have never read a more compelling book. I love this country and the state of Texas, the stupidity of the government and the naivety of the population never ceases to amaze me and I continue to question why we as a country never learn from our mistakes. This book and the story it tells should be required reading and studying for all
October 17, 2018
This was an interesting story from post WWII Texas. Even though we as citizens know that the government does not always have our best interests at the forefront of their minds. This problem with elected officials is evident in how the people of Texas City, TX were treated after a preventable disaster happened in their city.
Well-written, and very informative, this story is a testament to the will of people who suffer the unthinkable and still rebuild their lives. This is a definite read for anyone interested in little known historical events that happened within our own borders.
Well-written, and very informative, this story is a testament to the will of people who suffer the unthinkable and still rebuild their lives. This is a definite read for anyone interested in little known historical events that happened within our own borders.
April 22, 2023
I liked the way this book was structured though the legal scenes at the end bored me. I do like the way he captured the feeling of the citizens of Texas City. Texas City in those days was a hard scrabble town where the majority of its citizens were just struggling to get by. Through each snippet you get to live the way they lived. You see the tragedy unfold as it happens. It's a shame the victims didn't get nearly the justice they deserved. Small settlement checks will never replace the hell that the survivors endured. Minutaglio is a good storyteller and really makes this a compelling read.
April 20, 2025
WOW! Really Moving Book
This is one of the most astonishing books I have ever read. I’d had never heard of this disaster, and I find that a tragedy in itself. The fact that this is not taught to children when it comes to teaching about climate change is an error of humanity that everyone should want to correct. This needs to be known by the public, the fact that these historical episodes are covered up could doom the human race all by itself.
This is one of the most astonishing books I have ever read. I’d had never heard of this disaster, and I find that a tragedy in itself. The fact that this is not taught to children when it comes to teaching about climate change is an error of humanity that everyone should want to correct. This needs to be known by the public, the fact that these historical episodes are covered up could doom the human race all by itself.
August 3, 2019
Fantastic book! Most books covering disasters focus on the mechanics of what happened, this book focuses on the people and their stories. I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone wanting to learn about the Texas City Disaster. It was a heart breaking read, I had to stop several times and go hug my wife.
January 15, 2020
Fantastic book. Well written. I had heard about the disaster before, but this really fills in the details and just as importantly puts a perspective on the people affected by it. It follows many of the who lived through it and lost loved ones. It also provides important information on what did and did not happen after.
August 24, 2024
EXCELLENT READABLE ACCOUNT OF AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY
This book should be on every history buff's, bookshelf. And required reading for city planners, law students. It should also be taught in high school and college history classes.
This book should be on every history buff's, bookshelf. And required reading for city planners, law students. It should also be taught in high school and college history classes.
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August 20, 2021If they made this book into a movie nobody would believe it. Riveting, and as a "dear diary" moment I now kind of want to go visit Texas City...
May 27, 2022
Great book about a horrible disaster. Does a good job of setting the scene leading up to and after the fateful days, and focuses on folks all across the board in terms of involvement.
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