STATE OF EMERGENCY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 67, Issue 160, 19 April 1947, Page 5

STATE OF EMERGENCY

TEXAS CITY STILL BEING ROCKED Magnitude Of Disaster Not Yet Known JN.Z. Press Association—Copy^ig^ht.) NEW YORK, April 17. Most of Texas City’s population of 18,000 who were capable of doing so fled last night, but by noon to-day 6000 had returned. All visitors, except those with essential business, are barred from the city. The Governor, Mr Beauford Jester, issued a proclamation declaring a state of emergency and outlined reconstruction and rehabilitation plans. The State Legislature paused to pray for the dead and dying. Messages of condolence were received from many parts of the world. Senator Lee O’Daniel (Democrat, Texas), in Washington today, asked for a Senate investigation. He said that although the tragedy could have been accidental, it followed the pattern of others preceding the entry of the United States into the war, which were attributable to Communist underground view of the high tension in international affairs,” he said, “it is the Senate’s duty to conduct a complete investigation.” The French line announced that there were three survivors of the crew of 41 of the ship Grand Camp, the explosion on which led to the disaster. All three survivors were critically injured.

After being subdued fire broke out afresh late this afternoon at the oil refinery and is being fought in an effort to prevent it from spreading to the high octane petrol storage depot which so far has miraculously escapeddamage. The French Embassy spokesman announced that a French inquiry commission would be sent to Texas City to investigate the Grand Camp explosion. 1 The number known to be killed is now 400, with possibly 250 to 375 additional dead. The Texas City authorities ordered the evacuation of the lower city area to-night as fresh fires in the oil refinery and a shifting wind caused new threats to the town. The wind was swinging to the south across the city and threatening to spread the flames. .

A city official said: “We are expecting another oil tank explosion, and we want everyone to get as far away as possible.” As a report spread that another blast was expected a fresh exodus from the battered city began. Diners, cooks and waitresses fled from one restaurant, leaving half-cooked or half-eaten meals.

Ambulance crews were bringing in more dead from tlid dockyards when the evacuation of the waterfront was ordered. The latest victims, who include six children, were horribly burned and almost impossible to identify. „ \

Three hours before the evacuation order the deputy-mayor, Mr J. Hill, announced that only four fires were still burning and they were all under control. Late to-night the flames appeared to be diminishing slightly. A third ship, the American Govern-ment-owned 7176-ton Liberty freighter Wilson B. Keene sank as the result of the explosions. The freighter, which was loaded with wheat, was lying alongside the High Flyer. A wharf labourer, whose gang was ordered off the Grand Camp when the fire in the ammonium nitrate became threatening, claimed “that ammunition of some kind in number 5 hatch blew up. The nitrates in number 4 hatch were burning when we went abroad, but the explosion came when the fire hit the ammunition hatch.” The wharf labourer said another gang of 20 was aboard the Grand Camp when she exploded. . None of the crew was aboard the Grand Camp when she .blew up. A member of the crew, Maurice le Bronzac, of Le Harve, said he was one of the six known survivors trom the Grand Camp’s crew of 41. All six are in hospital at Galveston. Le Brozec denied reports that the Grand Camp was carrying a cargo of explosives. He said the ship’s load contained only sisal, ammonium-nitrate, cotton and peanuts. The nitrate exploded. The captain was on the wharf making a telephone call when the fire started. The mate ordered the

ship to be abandoned about 8.30 a.m. The crew except the surviving members, joined the stevedoring gang on the wharf. Three of the survivors went to a nearby refreshment stand • and three others began walking to a friend’s home. The explosion caused the refreshment stand to collapse, killing the owner but the sailors scrambled free. All the survivors suffered bleading ears, swollen hands and feet and severe cuts. All the men who remained on the wharf were presumed killed. The ship’s carpenter, who is also a survivor, said he saw a little smoke rising from the fertiliser when he opened the hatch at 8 a.m. He picked up an extinguisher and played it on the fire. When more smoke came from the he closed it and turned steam into the compartment. The fire kept burning until it worked up enough pressure to 'blow off '■ hatch cover, but by then the crew had left the ship. Thousands of begrimed and weary workers are trying to restore order in devastated Texas City. Rescue parties equipped with bulldozers are turning over hundreds of tons of wreckage in their search for bodies believed to be still buried. From dawn men, women and children moved in long lines to depots to identify relatives killed in the explosions on Wednesday and Thursday. f While the fires are dying down the city is still a smouldering ruin, and the danger of new explosions has not yet passed. . • Forty-six victims of the disaster have developed symptoms of gas gangrene, says a report from Galveston." , TT Dr. Pulaski, of Brooke General Hospital, San Antonio, said there should he no general alarm over gangrene development, as all 46 victims were exposed to poisonous fumes from chlorine tanks. The Monsanto Chemical Company announced that 307 of its employees are still missing. Asbestos-suited volunteers to-day began to penetrate the still-smoking ruins of the plant in search of victims, and later, a coastguard, broadcasting from a mobile transmitter on the spot, said that live people were being uncovered in Mon Santo ruins. Reporters were barred from the Monsanto. area and therefore were unable to confirm the coastguard report. It seems impossible that anyone could have lived through the terrible explosions and fires of the past 48 hours. The Associated Press correspondent said that an officer in charge of rescue equipment had been on the scene since daylight, and had not found any victims alive. The deputy collector of customs at Galveston testified before the coastguard investigation to-day that the French freighter Grand Camp s manifest showed that the ship carried 16 cases of ammunition.