8:00 AM. The SS Grandcamp sat at dock, loading fertilizer. Routine work. At 09:12, conditions inside the hold reached the proper combination of heat and pressure for ammonium nitrate to explode. The detonation of the Grandcamp was devastating. Seismologists in Denver become concerned that an atomic bomb had detonated somewhere on the gulf coast. Hundreds of people, including 27 of Texas City's 28 volunteer firefighters and all of the crew of the Grandcamp, were killed almost instantly by the blast. The ship itself was all but obliterated as tons of steel fragments rained down on the city. Also raining down on the city were flaming bales of twine that had been stored on the Grandcamp's deck, now converted into flaming projectiles that started even more fires around the city.
The area around the Texas City docks was packed with refineries, chemical plants, warehouses, and storage tanks filled to the brim with flammable chemicals and petroleum products. For days after the initial explosion, additional explosions, fires, and chemical leaks would ravage the waterfront. These fires would seriously hamper rescue efforts along the docks.
So many chemicals leached into the water of the bay that it could not safely be used to fight fires, leading to serious water shortages. Many of the victims who survived the initial blast had to be bathed in kerosene to free them of various chemical coatings.
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