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00:00History is full of killer stories, people, places, and events so downright shocking that we just can't forget them.
00:20Tonight, one mistake turns an oil rig into hell.
00:28You really only have two choices. You burn to death, or you jump.
00:34A luxury airship is actually a floating bomb.
00:41Some do survive the jump, but they're too injured to move as the burning Hindenburg descends above them.
00:48A once-sleepy mountain unleashes more fury than any bomb in history.
00:54It blots out the sun. Day turns to night. It's apocalyptic.
01:01These are the explosions so destructive, so disastrous, and so devastating, they can only be among history's deadliest.
01:15Many explosions happen completely by accident, but at the port of Beirut, a series of bad choices sparks an explosive catastrophe.
01:30The port of Beirut is the most important port in Lebanon. It is a vital artery in the eastern Mediterranean.
01:42It connects Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
01:45In 2014, a ship named the Rosas comes into the port of Beirut. It's actually headed to Mozambique. Its cargo is 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate.
01:55Officials impound the Rosas over unpaid debts, and they take that 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate and stash it in Warehouse 12.
02:07Ammonium nitrate is used as fertilizer, but with the right catalyst, it also makes one hell of a bomb.
02:17The location of Warehouse 12 is absolutely critical. It's only about 300 feet from the harbor and another 300 feet from a large grain warehouse.
02:27So that puts it right at the epicenter of the economic heart of the city of Beirut.
02:32And that's where the ammonium nitrate sits for the next six years.
02:37For reasons that no one can explain, right next to the ammonium nitrate in Warehouse 12 is a huge store of fireworks.
02:52On August 4th, 2020, a fire breaks out at Warehouse 12.
02:57We're not sure exactly what caused it, but some say that there was a welder working on some of the warehouse doors, and that could have set off some sparks.
03:07Firefighters respond to the call thinking this is just a normal fire in a normal warehouse, something that a single crew, a single engine can take care of.
03:16But this is a fire involving 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, and this is anything but routine.
03:25Ammonium nitrate is a white powder. If you heat it up very, very quickly, you have an explosion.
03:31At 6.07pm, an explosion rocks the warehouse. It's not tremendously huge, but it looks like there are fireworks mixed in there.
03:44Everyone's starting to take pictures and take video of the event, just, you know, something, oh, wow, this thing happened, right?
03:5033 seconds after the initial explosion,
03:52You have this massive explosion.
04:07This is no ordinary explosion.
04:10The energy released is equivalent to 1,100 tons of TNT.
04:17That's the same as a small nuclear bomb.
04:24Onlookers who are seeing it, they feel the shockwave first.
04:31And then they actually hear it.
04:33The people in the path of this shockwave get struck by a compressed wave of air.
04:44When you get hit by a wave of this magnitude, there's extreme amounts of trauma to your brain.
04:51Your bones get shattered.
04:53Your organs can just get, like, turned into jelly, can get liquefied.
04:56You're not walking away from this.
04:57The aftermath is shocking.
05:02Over 200 dead, 6,000 injured, and 77,000 homes destroyed.
05:08The hospitals are completely overwhelmed.
05:14The explosion leaves behind a crater 400 feet wide.
05:20Along with the destruction are those grain silos, with the 15,000 tons of grain.
05:28So in an instant, a huge portion of Lebanon's grain reserves are obliterated.
05:37Lebanon is already struggling with internal turmoil and financial difficulties.
05:43And this explosion deals a crippling blow to the government.
05:49And the political fallout from the explosion in the port of Beirut becomes global news.
05:58The Beirut explosion was years in the making.
06:02But the most destructive blast can take centuries to build.
06:06Indonesia's Sunda Strait lies in one of the most geologically active parts of the world.
06:15It's in a place called the Pacific Ring of Fire.
06:19The Ring of Fire spans about 25,000 miles and contains about 75% of the world's volcanoes.
06:27And in the heart of the Sunda Strait is a long, dormant volcano, Krakatoa.
06:34For about 200 years, Krakatoa has been a sleeping giant.
06:41But in the 1880s, it starts to make some noise.
06:45Nobody pays attention.
06:48As a matter of fact, some people are even taking boats out to view the volcano at close range.
06:53But if those people could see what was happening deep in the heart of the mountain,
07:00they wouldn't want to get any closer.
07:02Krakatoa is sitting on what's called a tectonic fault.
07:08In this case, you have the Indo-Australian plate and the Eurasian plate.
07:12In this particular instance, one is diving down underneath the other.
07:16And as that crust goes deeper into the earth, it heats up, melts, forms this magma,
07:23and the gases within that magma now want to expand and come to the surface.
07:29By dawn on August 27th, the pressure building under Krakatoa can no longer be contained.
07:36Molten rock forces its way through a sealed vent.
07:43That causes an explosion that's heard 200 miles away.
07:47The force of that blast is so strong, it creates a tsunami 50 feet high.
07:53This tsunami propagates out away from the volcano and obliterates fishing villages along the shore
07:58in places like West Java and Southern Sumatra.
08:03And a lot of people think that this first eruption is it.
08:06It was the explosion of Krakatoa.
08:09The blast is destructive, but it's only a warm-up for what's to come.
08:14At 6.44, a second explosion happens, and this one sends ash and rock 65,000 feet up into the air,
08:25up into the stratosphere.
08:28Now, the volcano is destabilized.
08:32People have no idea what's about to come next.
08:37At 10.02 a.m., there's a third explosion.
08:44The mountain basically self-destructs.
08:52The force of this blast is so powerful that it's equivalent to over 200 megatons of TNT.
09:02That's four times the destructive force of the most powerful nuclear bomb ever built.
09:09It's the loudest sound ever heard in history.
09:12There are people 3,000 miles away in Mauritius and Australia that hear what they think are cannon blasts.
09:20Entire portions of the mountain simply collapse into the ocean.
09:28It's a process called caldera formation.
09:31This collapse creates a massive void where the island once existed, and only the ocean can fill it.
09:37All of that ocean water rushing into the volcano immediately becomes superheated and flashes to steam.
09:44If you've ever held a scalding hot pan underneath some running water, you know that it just sort of violently explodes into steam.
09:52And that's what's happening in Krakatoa.
09:54The superheated gas and debris shoot out at over 1,600 miles per hour.
10:02As if all this rock, ash and searing heat isn't enough, Krakatoa has got another trick up its sleeve.
10:19A second, much, much larger tsunami.
10:22You have a wall of water about 120 feet high that races out from this volcano.
10:30Anything caught in the path of this tsunami turns into a deadly projectile.
10:35Houses, trees, chunks of the volcano itself.
10:39There's no escape.
10:40By the time the eruption ends, more than 36,000 people are dead.
10:48This eruption is so massive that it changes weather patterns around the world.
10:53And the particulate matter in the sky, left behind by the volcano, creates these beautiful orange and red sunsets.
11:01In fact, it's even suggested that the very famous painting by Edvard Munch called The Scream was inspired by the events of Krakatoa.
11:10Today, one of the most devastating volcanoes in history is quietly rebuilding.
11:16There's an island where Krakatoa used to live called Anak Krakatau, which means child of Krakatoa.
11:23And even though it's erupting with small explosions these days, it's only a matter of time before it has another big one.
11:31It's 1917, and the world is at war.
11:41German submarines patrol all over the North Atlantic, including a key port in Nova Scotia.
11:48Halifax Harbor is by far one of the busiest ports in the world.
11:56And during World War I, it is moving everything from Canadian troops to supplies to ammunition in and out of the harbor on a regular basis.
12:05Ordinarily, ships are not allowed to bring massive cargo full of explosives into the harbor.
12:12But during war, when we're afraid of these German submarines coming in, they do change the rules.
12:20Typically, when a ship would come into port, they would usually raise some sort of flag or some sort of warning saying,
12:25we're carrying X type of cargo.
12:27But when the cargo is high explosives, you need to be more discreet.
12:32None of these flags are ever flown, so no one is really sure of what type of cargo it is that they're carrying.
12:40It's the morning of December 6, 1917.
12:44The SS Montblanc enters harbor at sunrise, and beneath deck, there are thousands of wooden crates packed with explosives,
12:52like TNT, picric acid, and gun cotton.
12:55But because it's not flying that flag, most people on shore have no idea about this.
13:02At the same time, you have another ship that's trying to leave Halifax Harbor, which is a Dutch ship called the I-Mote.
13:08The I-Mote is trying to make up time, so it is moving way faster than the allotted five knots.
13:14And it interacts with the Clara, which is a tugboat.
13:17It's on the wrong side, so the I-Mote goes further on the wrong side and passes the tugboat on the starboard side.
13:22Now at this point, the I-Mote and the Montblanc come like this toward each other,
13:27and the I-Mote whips right across the front of the Montblanc.
13:30The ships do hit each other, but barely.
13:35It doesn't seem like the kind of impact that could cause real damage.
13:40Except for the fact that it knocks over benzyl containers.
13:44Benzyl is a tar-like flammable substance that's kind of like napalm.
13:49The benzyl tips over and is leaking across the ship, and it only takes a small spark.
13:53And suddenly, you have a big fire.
13:58The captain of the Montblanc tells his crew,
14:01lifeboats, abandon ship, get off now, because we know what's going to happen.
14:05The residents of Halifax, all they know is that there's a fire that's occurring on board the Montblanc,
14:10and people start to come out and look at the fire.
14:14Meanwhile, firefighters are rushing toward the blaze to put it out.
14:18They have no idea what they're getting into.
14:21Eventually, when you have this much heat,
14:23sitting inside of a confined space,
14:26with all of this explosive material,
14:28you're basically creating the conditions for a super bomb.
14:38The massive explosion is far more powerful than anything used in combat.
14:45The entire ship is vaporized in a second.
14:49The shockwave flattens about 500 acres of Halifax.
14:54The explosion is so powerful that the anchor, which weighs about 1,100 pounds,
15:00is thrown two and a half miles away from the harbor.
15:04The injuries are horrible.
15:06People are watching this inside through windows.
15:09But when the wave of compressed air hits them, it shatters the glass.
15:145,000 people are injured by flying glass, and 40 are permanently blinded.
15:20Entire neighborhoods are just completely wiped off the map.
15:25In the aftermath of the explosion, you have around 2,000 people who are dead,
15:29and about 10,000 people who are injured.
15:33Halifax ultimately becomes a war zone without a war.
15:36Colliding boats cause disaster in Halifax.
15:42By the end of the Civil War,
15:44one greedy boat captain creates a calamity that costs hundreds of lives.
15:49For Union soldiers who have been held as POWs,
15:56they've survived the war, and now they've just got that last leg of the journey home.
16:02April 24, 1865, the Sultana, a side-wheeled steamboat,
16:07is being prepped to bring 2,000 Union POWs north from Vicksburg, Mississippi.
16:12The Sultana isn't a big ship.
16:14It's meant to hold no more than 376 passengers.
16:18But on that day, over 2,000 Union soldiers are packed in,
16:23cheek to jowl, filling every available space.
16:27It's outright inhumane to treat these soldiers this way.
16:31But the Sultana's captain, J. Cass Mason,
16:34sees this as a great money-making opportunity.
16:37The government is offering $5 for every enlisted man transported north
16:41and $10 for every officer.
16:44So for Mason, nothing's going to stop him from leaving that dock,
16:47including the questionable condition of the ship's boilers.
16:53When the Sultana docks at Vicksburg to pick up the troops,
16:57the chief engineer notifies Captain Mason that the boiler's cracked and it needs repair.
17:02But Mason needs to get moving if he's going to collect on a big payday.
17:09He ignores the engineer's warning and swings the steamboat up the Mississippi River.
17:15The Mississippi is swollen with the spring runoff.
17:18And so right away, the Sultana is struggling against the current.
17:22The engines on the overloaded Sultana fight to keep her moving upriver.
17:29They're pushed to their limits for hours.
17:33As pressure builds, it's not going to hold up.
17:40And it explodes.
17:42The explosion triggers a chain reaction,
17:46causing two of the other three boilers to also explode.
17:51The blast wave rips through the entire ship.
17:56The blast sends men into the fast-moving current of the Mississippi River.
18:04Arkansas locals see the flash and hear the boom, and they rush to help.
18:10In an incredible act of selflessness,
18:12these former Confederates pull these Union survivors out of the water into safety.
18:17These soldiers, who only a few weeks ago were literally trying to kill each other.
18:23But even with these rescue efforts,
18:27this becomes the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history.
18:34According to the U.S. Customs Service,
18:37over 1,500 men lose their lives,
18:40making this a worse disaster than the Titanic.
18:43Many bodies float down the river for weeks.
18:47Some are never recovered, including that of the captain, J. Cass Mason.
18:52It's heartbreaking to think that so many of these soldiers
18:56who survived the bloodiest conflict on American soil
19:00end up losing their lives on their way home,
19:04so close to being done with the war.
19:06In 1936, Germany launches a symbol of Nazi pride, the Hindenburg.
19:17But the rich passengers on board have no idea
19:21the airship is another tragedy waiting to happen.
19:26The Hindenburg is massive.
19:29It is the largest airship ever built.
19:32It is over 800 feet long.
19:34It is equivalent to putting three Boeing 747s nose-to-tail together.
19:41By 1937, the Hindenburg has already had 62 flights.
19:46And for 62 flights,
19:48the Hindenburg completes 10 transatlantic crossings without a hitch.
19:53On May 6, the Hindenburg has just traveled for 61 hours
19:58from Frankfurt, Germany, to Lakehurst, New Jersey.
20:01As it slowly glides to the landing field,
20:05all eyes are on the airship.
20:08It is a marvel of German engineering
20:10and, let's be honest, a piece of Nazi propaganda.
20:16While they're building the airship,
20:18they intend to use helium in these 16 massive cotton bags
20:22that are placed between 15 different metal structures
20:25inside the airship.
20:27Unfortunately, due to the embargo of the United States,
20:30Germany isn't able to get their hands on helium,
20:33so instead, they switch to hydrogen.
20:35Hydrogen is light.
20:37It's also the most flammable gas on the planet.
20:42When they go to dock,
20:43all the ropes are dropped
20:44and port side is tightened up a little bit too much.
20:48Just enough that something happened.
20:50Eyewitnesses on the ground
20:53report seeing something almost like a flash
20:57happening in the tail section of the ship.
21:01And then mere seconds later,
21:03the entire Hindenburg explodes.
21:10The fireball is staggering.
21:13Seven million cubic feet of hydrogen
21:16igniting in an instant.
21:19The outer skin burns up almost immediately,
21:23exposing the framework,
21:25which is a lightweight aluminum alloy called duralumin.
21:30Duralumin's a marvel for air travel
21:32because it's so lightweight,
21:34but it has a melting temperature
21:36of about 600 degrees Fahrenheit.
21:39And that's not great
21:40when the flames coming off of this hydrogen bomb
21:43are over 1,000 degrees.
21:44The Hindenburg's frame starts to melt
21:48as flames spread along it.
21:50Passengers and crew are seeing
21:52everything inside the ship burn up.
21:55Some of them are tempted to escape out of the windows
21:58and make a jump for it,
22:00but the ship is still 150 feet off the ground.
22:04Some of them do survive the jump,
22:06but they become too injured to move
22:08as the massive airframe of the burning Hindenburg
22:12descends above them.
22:14Others are luckier.
22:16They wait until the last second to jump,
22:19and when they do, they run.
22:21In just 34 seconds,
22:24the Hindenburg crashes to the ground.
22:27It's smoldering and melting frame,
22:30crushing many of those beneath it.
22:34Of the 97 passengers and crew aboard,
22:3836 perish.
22:41This is terrible.
22:42This is one of the worst catastrophes
22:44in the world.
22:46All the humanity.
22:48In the end,
22:49it's not only the Hindenburg's death toll
22:52that makes history.
22:53It's the horror captured on film.
22:56Footage of the Hindenburg is so terrifying
22:59that the demand for travel by airship
23:02is completely over.
23:04No one is willing to step into
23:06a floating hydrogen bomb after seeing that.
23:11Using the wrong material
23:14blows up the Hindenburg.
23:1650 years later,
23:18a careless mistake
23:19blows up an oil rig in the North Sea.
23:26The Piper Alpha oil rig
23:29sits in the North Sea,
23:31about 120 miles northeast of Scotland.
23:34This rig brings up
23:35about 120,000 barrels of crude oil
23:39every single day.
23:41On July 6, 1988,
23:43there is a minor repair
23:44that has to happen
23:45to one of the gas compression pumps.
23:47The valve in the gas line
23:49has been removed.
23:50There's a temporary cover
23:51on the gas line
23:52that isn't fully sealed,
23:54but the shift ends.
23:56And so everyone leaves
23:58and it now converts
23:58to the night shift,
24:00but there is no communication
24:01to let them know that,
24:03hey, this repair
24:04is still in process.
24:06Later that night,
24:07the crew starts up the pump
24:09and gas immediately
24:10begins to leak
24:11and fills in
24:12a cramped section
24:13of the platform.
24:14On an oil rig,
24:16everything smells like gas.
24:18So for the 226 workers,
24:21there's no warning.
24:26At 10 p.m.,
24:27the explosion tears
24:28through the rig.
24:30Unfortunately,
24:30the control room
24:31happens to sit right above
24:33where the leak was.
24:34They were in the wrong place
24:36at the wrong time,
24:37and it's obliterated.
24:39The destruction
24:40is just getting started.
24:43Minutes later,
24:44the heat ruptures
24:45a second gas line.
24:48The second explosion
24:49is catastrophic.
24:52Flames shoot into the air,
24:54completely engulfing
24:55the platform,
24:56and temperatures soar
24:57to over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
25:00When you get a fire
25:01of this temperature,
25:03even the massive steel girders
25:05that form this platform
25:07are vulnerable.
25:09Some workers are able
25:10to climb down
25:11to the lower platform
25:12below the flames,
25:14but others are not so lucky.
25:16They're trapped up above.
25:20You really only have
25:21two choices at that point.
25:23Either you burn to death
25:24or you jump 175 feet
25:29into the freezing North Sea.
25:32Many choose to jump,
25:34and from that height,
25:35it's like slamming
25:36into a slab of concrete.
25:39It's frigid cold.
25:41Hypothermia sets in fast,
25:43and many of these workers
25:44die before rescue boats
25:46can reach them.
25:4781 workers are still
25:48in the living quarters
25:50of the Piper Alpha.
25:51Any and all evacuation routes
25:53that these men
25:53are attempting to find
25:54are all blocked off.
25:55About almost two hours
25:57after the initial explosion,
25:58the living quarters themselves
25:59actually fall beneath
26:00the waves of the North Sea,
26:02and all 81 workers
26:04that are in those living quarters
26:06slip beneath the waves,
26:07and they all just disappear.
26:11By the time the fires burn out,
26:14Piper Alpha
26:15is a twisted smoking skeleton.
26:17Of the 226 workers
26:22on board that day,
26:24167 of them died.
26:28It's the deadliest offshore
26:30oil rig disaster in history.
26:35There are 140 miles of wiring
26:39on a 747 aircraft,
26:41and if just one of them
26:42goes wrong,
26:44it can lead to disaster.
26:45It's the final boarding call
26:51for TWA Flight 800
26:53from New York's JFK
26:55to Paris, France.
26:59TWA Flight 800
27:00takes off from JFK
27:02at 8.19 p.m.
27:04A few minutes later,
27:06the plane passes over Long Island,
27:08carrying 230 passengers.
27:1111 minutes into the flight,
27:14the 747 is climbing steadily
27:16into the air.
27:19Then, without any warning,
27:23massive fireball explodes
27:27and blows apart the aircraft.
27:31Some eyewitnesses look up to see
27:34flaming wreckage
27:36coming down out of the sky.
27:37First to this scene
27:43is Major Fred Meyer
27:45of the Air National Guard.
27:47He steers his helicopter
27:48to the debris field,
27:49and he gets there so quickly
27:51that he can still watch wreckage
27:53and even bodies
27:55falling from the sky.
27:56Everyone on board is killed.
28:00Questions begin
28:01even before any bodies
28:03are recovered.
28:05Was it human error?
28:07Terrorism?
28:08No one knows.
28:10After a four-year investigation,
28:13the National Transportation Safety Board
28:15makes a ruling.
28:16The center wing fuel tank
28:21sits between the wings
28:22and forward
28:23of the passenger cabin.
28:25And at the time
28:26of the explosion,
28:27it's carrying about
28:2850 gallons of jet fuel,
28:31which ironically
28:32makes it more likely
28:33to lead to an explosion.
28:36It seems counterintuitive,
28:38but the lack of fuel
28:39means that there's vapor
28:41in the tank,
28:41and that vapor
28:42is actually more flammable.
28:44This vapor was like a bomb.
28:48All it needed
28:49was an ignition source.
28:51Ordinarily,
28:51that wouldn't happen,
28:52but some faulty
28:53electrical wiring
28:54introduced just enough
28:56electrical voltage
28:57to initiate a spark
28:59and then to explode,
29:02causing the front section
29:04of the plane,
29:05the nose,
29:06to fall into the ocean
29:07and for the rear section
29:09to actually go
29:10into a momentary climb
29:11before itself falling
29:13into the ocean.
29:16Technically,
29:17there is one survivor.
29:19A teacher from Wisconsin's
29:22flight is delayed.
29:23She gets to the boarding gate
29:25too late,
29:26and so she watches
29:27Flight 800 take off
29:28without her.
29:29But she's going to find out
29:31in just a few minutes
29:32how lucky she really is.
29:36One bad piece of equipment
29:38can rip a jet
29:39out of the sky,
29:40but it takes a few
29:41bad choices
29:42to create a disaster
29:44in the Soviet Union.
29:49Two passenger trains
29:51are traveling
29:52in opposite directions
29:53along the Trans-Siberian Railway,
29:55where explosive gas
30:00is leaking
30:00from a broken pipeline.
30:01That's what's happening
30:05on June 4th, 1989,
30:08with train 211
30:09traveling from
30:10Nova Sebris
30:10to the Black Sea
30:11and train 212
30:13traveling from the Black Sea
30:14back to Nova Sebris.
30:16And they are careening
30:18toward each other.
30:21The railway runs
30:23for miles of wilderness
30:25and has for decades.
30:26The pipeline
30:27that runs
30:28alongside the tracks
30:30in this part
30:30of the Siberian wilderness
30:32is relatively new.
30:34The pipeline
30:35delivers a hazardous
30:36mix of gases,
30:38propane
30:38and butane.
30:40And when an excavator
30:41accidentally bumps
30:43into it,
30:44nobody notices
30:45the four-foot
30:46hairline crack
30:47in the pipe wall.
30:49The gas quantities
30:50are dropping.
30:51So instead of going out
30:53to investigate,
30:54the engineers assume
30:55there must be
30:55an increase in demand
30:56so they pump
30:57even more gas
30:58through the pipeline.
30:59And then,
31:00as if by some
31:01cruel twist of fate,
31:03the two trains arrive
31:04at exactly
31:05the wrong moment.
31:08Because the gas
31:09is heavier than air,
31:11it clings to the ground.
31:13And in a short amount
31:14of time,
31:14an enormous cloud
31:15of vapor forms
31:16blanketing the tracks.
31:18The trains hurtle
31:19through the vapor.
31:20Each one weighs
31:21hundreds of tons
31:22and their wheels
31:23are grinding
31:23against the tracks.
31:24sparks are inevitable
31:26and it only takes
31:28one at the worst
31:29possible moment
31:30to set off
31:33a catastrophic
31:34explosion.
31:41It throws the trains
31:43away like toys,
31:45crumpling them,
31:46burning them horribly.
31:47It flattens 250 acres
31:49of trees
31:51as if a huge hand
31:52came down
31:52and just wiped
31:53those trees clean.
31:55Inside the train cars,
31:56it is absolute terror.
31:58Passengers are thrown
31:59from their seats
32:00and many of them
32:01start burning alive.
32:03And the almost
32:042,000 degree
32:06Fahrenheit inferno
32:07that follows.
32:09Even experienced
32:10first responders
32:11are shocked
32:12when they arrive
32:13at the scene.
32:17What the rescuers
32:18see is like
32:19hell on earth.
32:20They have to make
32:21instant decisions
32:22about who to treat
32:23so that the death toll
32:24does not climb
32:24even higher.
32:27Of the over
32:281,200 passengers
32:29aboard both trains,
32:31575 perish.
32:33It's one of the world's
32:34deadliest train crashes.
32:36It's absolutely
32:37devastating
32:37and it's
32:38a national tragedy.
32:40Violent explosions
32:46are part of war.
32:47But in China,
32:48one of the deadliest
32:50blasts of World War II
32:51takes place
32:52far from the battlefield.
32:57It's early morning
32:58on April 26, 1942
33:00at the Benshihu Colliery.
33:04These Chinese miners
33:05are spending
33:0512 hours a day
33:08in brutal work conditions.
33:09At the time,
33:12Japan has basically
33:13colonized
33:14portions of China
33:16during World War II
33:18as a way to strip
33:19the land
33:19of its natural resources.
33:22Early in the morning,
33:23the Benshihu Mine
33:24is highly active.
33:26The night ship
33:27that is in full swing,
33:29thousands of workers
33:30are pulling coal
33:31out of this mine.
33:33It's grueling work
33:34in a poorly maintained mine.
33:37If the ventilation
33:38is not being taken care of,
33:40that you are
33:40at an absolute risk
33:42of having
33:42what's considered
33:43a coal dust fire
33:44or a coal dust explosion.
33:46For this to occur,
33:48there's usually
33:48three main pieces.
33:51So the first one
33:52is methane
33:53and methane
33:53always goes hand in hand
33:55when you're extracting coal.
33:57The second piece
33:57is the coal dust.
33:58So while anybody
33:59is mining coal,
34:00it is very natural
34:01to have little tiny specks
34:03that are just floating around
34:05in the environment.
34:06The last thing
34:07for these fires to occur
34:08is an ignition source.
34:10Often, it has to do
34:11with some kind
34:12of electrical equipment
34:13giving off a spark,
34:14and if there's enough methane
34:15and coal dust nearby,
34:17those three pieces
34:18can come together
34:19and then boom.
34:21Around 2 a.m.,
34:23a spark deep
34:25in these coal mines
34:26ignites.
34:28And you get
34:28a massive fireball
34:30exploding
34:31through this tunnel network.
34:32The blast
34:35causes cave-ins.
34:37Then,
34:38flames race down
34:39passageways
34:40and set off
34:41more explosions.
34:43Death is instant
34:44for a lot of miners
34:45because this fire
34:46instantly obliterates them.
34:48For the miners
34:48that are further away
34:49from the explosion,
34:50they're thinking,
34:51okay, maybe if we just
34:52hurry and scramble,
34:52we can get to safety.
34:54The fires
34:55have created
34:56another deadly problem.
34:58And so what ends up
34:59happening is this fire,
35:00it burns up all that oxygen
35:01in the air
35:02and all it leaves behind
35:03is carbon monoxide.
35:05For those who are not
35:07in the immediate blast,
35:09now the atmosphere itself
35:11becomes one
35:12that is very toxic.
35:14In these instances,
35:15when people are trapped
35:16in a mine
35:16and they cannot get out,
35:18all they are going to do
35:19is continue to breathe
35:20this carbon monoxide in.
35:21Miners that are still alive
35:23at this point
35:23likely experience
35:25dizziness,
35:26perhaps a headache,
35:27and eventually,
35:28they're going to lose
35:28consciousness.
35:29Meanwhile,
35:31families hearing
35:32about the explosion
35:33are now starting
35:34to rush to the site
35:35and to make matters worse,
35:37the Japanese overseers
35:38start putting up
35:38fencing around the mine
35:40so that none of these
35:41families can get in
35:42and get to their loved ones.
35:47When this explosion happens,
35:50the Japanese response
35:51is to simply close
35:53the ventilation system
35:54to prevent the fire
35:55from consuming anything
35:57that's outside of the mine.
35:59But it is
36:00dooming the men
36:01inside to certain death.
36:05When an explosion
36:06of this magnitude
36:07happens underground,
36:09there's really
36:10almost a 0% chance
36:13of escape.
36:16Incredibly,
36:1753 men
36:19are able to claw
36:20their way to safety.
36:22They are battered,
36:23they are burned,
36:23but they find fresh air.
36:26But ultimately,
36:27when the dust settles,
36:28the death toll
36:29reaches 1,549 people,
36:33mostly all of whom
36:35are these Chinese laborers.
36:41Colombian Independence Day
36:43is supposed to be
36:45a happy event.
36:45But in 1956,
36:48celebration turns to tragedy.
36:53The mid-1950s,
36:55this is a time period
36:56that Colombia
36:57is engaged in civil war
36:59that's known as
36:59La Violencia.
37:01Most of the fighting
37:02that once occurred
37:03in the city
37:04has now been relegated
37:05to the countryside.
37:06So you do have people
37:07that are coming out
37:08near the center
37:10of Cali,
37:11happy because there is
37:12a presence of soldiers there,
37:13and so it provides you
37:15a sense of security.
37:17August 7, 1956
37:19is a special day.
37:21It's a day when Colombians
37:22celebrate their independence
37:24from Spain.
37:25And that's why
37:26no one blinks
37:27when the army parks
37:28seven of its trucks
37:29in the heart of the city.
37:32Inside of them,
37:33they have unusual cargo,
37:35more than 1,000 boxes
37:36of dynamite.
37:40Dynamite has many useful,
37:42peaceful purposes,
37:43like for clearing roads
37:45or for clearing out mines.
37:48It's safe
37:49when stored properly,
37:51but this dynamite
37:52is old and unstable.
37:5550,000 sticks of dynamite,
37:59all of them compromised,
38:01all of them degrading,
38:03all of them primed
38:05and ready to explode
38:06should the right circumstances
38:09happen to come along.
38:10And on top of that,
38:12these soldiers,
38:12once they park these trucks
38:13in the center of Kali,
38:15they all get out
38:15and decide,
38:17smoke break.
38:18Let's just go ahead
38:18and ignite these cigarettes
38:19and just, you know,
38:20have a smoke break
38:21and just hang out
38:22near this very, very,
38:23very flammable material.
38:25To be clear,
38:26again, it's not easy
38:27to set off dynamite.
38:28You would need something
38:29like a fuse
38:30or a blast cap
38:31to actually set off
38:32this dynamite,
38:33but when the dynamite
38:34has been degraded
38:36as much as the dynamite
38:37that's being carried around
38:38in these trucks,
38:39the likelihood of an accident
38:40is much more significant.
38:43The ambient temperature
38:45is enough
38:46to cause a massive explosion.
38:48All it takes
38:49is for one stick
38:51of dynamite to go off
38:53and the other 49,999 sticks
38:56are going to follow suit.
38:58At 1 a.m.,
38:5950,000 sticks of dynamite
39:02explode.
39:03And that causes
39:10a massive fireball
39:12to rip through
39:1341 city blocks.
39:16The resulting explosion
39:18is instantaneous
39:20and catastrophic.
39:23The blast reduces
39:25homes, businesses,
39:27vehicles to ashes.
39:29The shockwave
39:32is another beast
39:33altogether.
39:34The force of energy
39:35traveling outwards
39:37from the detonation
39:38reaches speeds
39:39between 3,000
39:40and 6,000 miles per hour.
39:43This isn't one
39:43of those shockwaves
39:44that you see
39:45in the movies
39:45or in television
39:46where the people
39:47get blown back
39:48about 20 feet,
39:48they get up
39:49and they continue to run.
39:50No, there's no running.
39:52It's hard to understand
39:54the destructive capacity
39:55of a shockwave itself.
39:57When it interacts
39:58with the human body,
39:59your ears explode,
40:00your eyes explode.
40:02All of these really
40:03horrible things
40:03happen to you.
40:04You're close enough
40:05to the blast
40:06where this shockwave
40:07hits you,
40:08you're going to die.
40:14Those who aren't killed
40:15immediately by the blast
40:17get buried by it.
40:20Entire neighborhoods
40:21vanish under the rubble.
40:24Buildings are flattened.
40:25Trucks and even trains
40:27are tossed around
40:28like kids' toys.
40:31It forms this massive crater
40:33that is 165 feet wide.
40:36By morning,
40:38the true scope
40:39of the devastation
40:40is clear.
40:42The downtown area
40:43is decimated.
40:451,200 people
40:46lose their lives
40:47and another 4,000
40:49are injured.
40:50Survivors wander
40:51through the wreckage
40:52dazed,
40:53looking for loved ones
40:54and wondering,
40:55what happened?
40:59This is one of the
41:00deadliest non-nuclear
41:01explosions
41:02ever recorded
41:03in human history.
41:07From volcanic eruptions
41:09that blot out the sun
41:10to man-made disasters
41:12that level everything
41:13from cities
41:15to oil rigs,
41:16explosions like these
41:18leave a mark
41:19on our world,
41:20earning a place
41:21among history's
41:22deadliest.
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