U.S. ACCIDENTS: YEAR’S TOLL ABOVE AVERAGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1947, Page 5

U.S. ACCIDENTS: YEAR’S TOLL ABOVE AVERAGE

NEW YORK, April 16. This year’s death roll from catastrophies in the United States is running at a rate far above the average for the last 10 years. Without including the heavy loss of life in today’s explosion, over 35 catastrophies, causing about 500 deaths, have been recorded for 1947. The highest loss of life previously recorded in any explosion in the United States occurred in 1865, when a Mississippi river-boat blew up, with -1405 deaths. The most disastrous fire in recent years was that .which razezd the’ Coconut Grove night-club in Boston, on November 28, 1942, killing 493. Today’s explosion was the second , worst in the list of tragedies which have struck Texas, and it is the second disaster to strike the State in a week, the first being the tornado which struck the Texas Panhandle, killing 56 and causing millions of dollars’ worth of property damage. The ■worst disaster in Texas history was the Galveston hurricane in September. 1960, which killed from 5000 to 8000 and caused 30,000,000 dollars’ worth of property damage. 'Texas City is heavily industrialised and is a major Texas shipping centre. Petroleum products form the major share of its industry. The chaos at Texas City resembled in some respects that caused in Halifax on December 6, 1917, when a munitions ship and a relief ship collided. Explosion and fire destroyed two and a-half square miles of the city, killed 1500 and injured 4000, ano. rendered homeless 20,000. Ammonium nitrate caused one of the world’s greatest disasters in 1921, when an explosion at the Badische anilin plant destroyed the German city of Opau, killing between 1000 and 1500.