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Comment by hinkley | Hacker News Reader

Sometimes they don’t go okay.

I can’t seem to find the name but there was a town in Texas, coal delivery ship shows up with fire in storage. They dock, open the hatches, fresh oxygen causes the fire to spread. Then other boats catch on fire. Some explode. Throw shrapnel into town. By the time the fires are out, hundreds are reported dead, almost 40% of the town is left homeless.

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You might be thinking of the 1947 Texas City disaster, which killed nearly 600 people. The fire, and the subsequent explosion after failed fire-fighting efforts, were in a cargo hold containing ammonium nitrate, not coal. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

Ok, which one of you fixed the missing curly brace in "{convert|10|mi}} away" right as I was about to?

I’m not sure what story I’m thinking of. The pictures and events don’t look right, but some Wikipedia lists about disasters don’t include anything else in Texas that’s the right size.

The story I’m thinking of, the captain knew the coal was burning before he docked, and went into port anyway to try to salvage the cargo. The subsequent explosion was due to material on other boats.

I may have heard about this around the Tianjin explosion but more likely when they were fighting the new coal depots on the west coast, someone brought it up while talking about coal self igniting.

Is it possible you're thinking of the Halifax Explosion? That killed hundreds and destroyed a huge portion of the city, but that ship was carrying ammunition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster ? Maybe another because I don't see it related to coal or that the ship showed up with a fire per se as opposed to one happening on the ship while in port.

That sounds like the Texas City ammonium nitrate disaster in 1947. One of the biggest industrial explosions in history.

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