Xaltozan Explosion
.jpg) Column of smoke produced by the explosion looming over the Xaltozan waterway | |
| Date | 10 December 1928 |
|---|---|
| Time | 10:09:15 am |
| Location | Xaltozan narrows Aztaco, Zacapican |
| Deaths | 982 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 10,000 |
The Xaltozan Explosion was a disaster which resulted from the collision of the Zacapine freighter SS Tlatetexoani and the Tyreseian cargo ship the SS Pasca in the Xaltozan narrows which separate Angatahuaca bay and the Angatahuaca-Amegatlan seaport from the Amictlan ocean. The collision of the two vessels started a fire on the SS Tlatetexoani which heated its volatile cargo of fuel oil and high explosive compounds, triggering an explosion which would remain one of the largest human-made explosions ever recorded. The explosion in the Xaltozan narrows caused severe damage to the nearby town of Peyon, as well as the Tepozilpitoc distict of Amegatlan, resulting in nearly 1,000 dead and the injury of many thousands of people. Today, the Xaltozan explosion is remembered as the worst man-made disaster in Zacapine history, far exceeding the country's record of nuclear accidents both in financial cost as well as in loss of life.
The Tlatetexoani was serving under the Zacapine merchant marine engaged in the transport of cargo from Zacapican to Pulacan as part of both nations ongoing involvement in the Hanaki War. As part of this effort, the Tlatetexoani had undergone a significant refit while in port at Tecolotlan, where it was loaded with multiple types of flammable and high explosive compounds to be used in the war effort in Malaio. The ship was entering the Amegatlan-Angatahuaca seaport through the Xaltozan narrows to refuel and prepare for the trans-oceanic voyage when it struck the outgoing Pasca, breaching the hull and containment sections within the ship, igniting the fuel oil stores and spreading the blaze which would in a matter of minutes reached the temperature threshhold to set off a chain reaction, detonating the high explosive compounds stored in the cargo holds. The resulting explosion, which occured only 20 minutes after the initial collision, represented a release of energy equivalent to roughly 3 kilotons of TNT.
The explosion severely damaged the Pasca and totally destroyed the Tlatetexoani, fragments of which were scattered as far as 10 kilometers away. The pressure wave generated by the explosion was strong enough to break apart and knock over trees, electrical transmission lines, and to demolish brick, concrete and wooden buildings within a 750 meter radius, which included most of the small town of Peyon on the west side of the Xaltozan narrows. The release of energy vaporized a portion of the surrounding seawater, sending a shockwave into the ground via the seabed which would be detected by seismometers hundreds of kilometers away. While many communities in the Angatahuaca area were distant enough to survive the pressure wave of the explosion without much damage, the tsunami generated by the explosion struck the seaside districts of Amegatlan and to a lesser extent Angatahuaca itself causing further damage across the bay.
The response of the disaster was extensive, representing one of the largest relief efforts ever undertaken by the Zacapine state. The thousands of injured needed to be tended to, while the many hundreds of dead also needed to accounted for and removed. The initial process of removing the wounded from the direct radius of the explosion was difficult as the explosion had knocked out the rail bridge connecting Peyon, the site of the greatest destruction, with the rest of the region. Small fishing vessels and pleasure craft manned by civilian volunteers proved instrumental in evacuating the wounded by sea. Tens of thousands were left homeless by the disaster, with the small community of Peyon never fully recovering. Repairs to the seaside districts and port facilities in Amegatlan and Angatahuaca restored the critical seaport to functionality within just one week of the explosion. The Cualtiya Ellaci Tlatequipanoque Zacapiyotl, a state operated disaster relief and humanitarian aid agency, was created in the aftermath of the disaster to help coordinate disaster response and relief in future natural disasters and major accidents. The Xaltozan Epitaph in what remains of the community of Peyon serves as the principle memorial dedicated to those affected by the disaster, while several smaller memorials exist across the many districts of surrounding Angatahuaca bay communities impacted by the events of the 10th of December, 1928.
Background
The disaster occurred in the Xaltozan narrows which serves as the only navigable connection between the enclosed natural harbor of the Angatahuaca bay to the north and the open Amictlan ocean to the south. As the bottleneck controlling the access in and out to the largest port in Zacapican, it was in the 1920s and remains to the present day one of the most heavily trafficked waterways in the world suffering from regular congestion from vessels simultaneously entering and exiting the bay in large numbers. The maritime passage through the narrows runs in a north by northwest to south by southeast direction, with an eastern and western shore on either side. The eastern shore, known to the locals as the "fortress wall", features tall cliffs and rocky outcroppings of an igneous geological providence making it ill-suited to buildings and so was largely uninhabited. However, the much flatter western shore was amenable to building, and had become home to the small fishing community of Peyon built on a peninsular extension jutting out from the western shore into the Xaltozan narrows. The neck connecting the peninsula where Peyon lay with the mainland was susceptible to flooding during storms and unusually high tides, motivating the construction of a railway bridge which would connect the town to the mainland as part of a line running north along the western shore all the way to Angatahuaca itself. At the time of the disaster the Xaltozan Bridge was under construction, at the time planned to be a railway bridge across the narrows allowing trains to bypass the busy Angatahuaca area. Many of the caissons for the construction of the underwater foundations of the bridge's pylons were in place in the narrows, imposing a 400 meter wide channel marked with buoys for ship traffic, with incoming and outgoing lanes. This distance restriction contributed greatly to the disaster as it forced the ships involved to navigate close to one another through the narrows.
Due to its strategic position controlling the entrance to the bay, the site of the town of Peyon had been fortified first by the Aztapaman and then the Zacapine republics. A barracks on the lowland of Peyon worked in coordination with an artillery fortress atop the cliffs of the eastern shore as the main naval defenses of the highly strategic bay. The strategic position compelled the government to construct an arsenal, a munitions store and a barracks in the town, as well as building a rail connection to improve the infrastructural connections to the position from the rest of the Aztaco region. The Peyon peninsula was also strategic for non-military purposes, with a fishing wharf on its southern shores allowing local fishermen to escape the tightening traffic restrictions being faced by those still operating from wharves within the Angatahuaca bay. This advantage drew a significant number of settlers to the flat peninsula, expanding Peyon's population from a few hundred to 8,000 in a few short years. Peyon had far outpaced its infrastructure, which had been built primarily to sustain only the military installation on the peninsula, and its status as a fishing community and dock rather than a commercial cargo facility left the town low on the priority list while much of the rest of the bay area was undergoing huge developments as part of the ongoing industrialization of Zacapican which defined the era.
Disaster
The first events contributing to the disaster at Xaltozan narrows took place in the port of Tecolotlan on the opposite coast of Zacapican. This was the port in which the SS Tlatetexoani, formerly a conventional merchant cargo vessel, was being refitted to carry war material to Malaio as part of Zacapican's ongoing involvement in the Hanaki War. Specifically, the Tlatetexoani was being modified to carry material needed for munitions production. These modifications involved dividing the cargo hold of the Tlatetexoani into several sections which were enclosed with wood and rubber to eliminate any possible source of a spark which could ignite the cargo. Once modifications to the hold were completed, the Tlatetexoani was loaded with high explosive compounds including Picric acid and Trinitrotoluene by the dockworkers of the Tecolotlan port.
The arrangements for the transport of high explosive aboard the ship were considered safe as the compounds had a relatively high ignition point with the least stable of the compounds the Picric acid having a flash point of 300 degrees Celsius. The crew were aprehensive of the dangeorus cargo but were assured that nothing short of a severe impact or an infero raging out of control would be able to set off the cargo. Indeed the modification of the cargo hold had eliminated almost every possible source of a spark which could start such a fire, and additional measures were put in place including the banning of smoking aboard the vessel to mitigate any risk of fire. It was beleived that with the few accelerants inside the ship, even if a fire started it could be controlled and would not be able to reach the necessary temperature threshold to ignite the picric acid, and certainly not the far more stable TNT compounds which would only ignite at even higher temperatures. However, many of these safety precautions were undermined at the last minute, when the dockworkers were ordered to load a large quantity of fuel oil and propellant for shells and bombs also bound for Pulacan. This was due to the fact that the load of high explosives had not occupied all of the cargo capacity of the ship, and both were needed badly in the Malaioan battlefields. In ordering these substances to be loaded into the remaining space aboard the ship however the Zacapine authorities had unwittingly provided the means to ignite the high explosive cargo, undermining their considerable earlier efforts to reduce the changes of an accident and inadvertently turning the Tlatetexoani into a floating bomb complete with a fuse of oil and nitrocellulose.
The Tlatetexoani finished the modifications and loading process and was underway from Tecolotlan in the western Zacaco Republic of Zacapican in the early hours of December 4th, with a planned stop in Angatahuaca in Aztaco on the east coast to take on more fuel and provisions for its long crossing to Pulacan via the Oceceya cold current running west to east across the ocean. It arrived in the waters off the Aztaco Republic in the early morning hours of the 10th of December, but did not enter the Xaltozan narrows passage until after 10 in the morning due to the delays of traffic entering the bay. The vessel was crewed by 18 Zacapine sailors commanded by Captain Pizatzi Coyametl, with Coyametl and the harbor pilot Izel Tlamac maneuvering the ship through the narrows.
The Pasca was cargo vessel registered in Tyreseia and crewed by one dozen Tyreseian nationals, as well as the Zacapine harbor pilot Xolotl Namiton who was at the helm of the vessel at the time of the accident. The vessel had arrived in the Amegatlan-Angatahuaca seaport the day prior with a cargo of copper wire manufactured in Sante Reze which was needed for the ongoing electrification projects in eastern Zacapican. A contract to carry a load of steel from the Amegatlan steelworks to Kayahallpa had fallen through, leaving the Pasca to leave port with an empty hold with the destination of Quitzapatzaro where Captain Insustria Marjuña intended to take on another cargo of steel, this time from Tequitinitlan.
Collision
The Pasca began its exit from Angatahuaca bay the morning of the 10th on the eastern side of the waterway, with the Angatahuaca native pilot Namiton at the helm navigating the ship in keeping to the rules and guidelines which called for vessels to keep the western marker buoys to their starboard when passing through the designated shipping channel. This course was interrupted first by a pair of Zacapine Navy cutters which were entering Angatahuaca bay on the incorrect side of the narrows. The pair of military vessels ordered the Pasca to yield and maneuver into the center of the channel, away from the correct lane for outgoing traffic. In the center of the channel, she encountered the SS Zamichi, another cargo ship carrying iron ore from Xochicuauhuico to the Amegatlan steelworks for processing into steel. Due to the slow speed and low maneuverability of the Zamichi, the Pasca again yielded and found itself fully on the western side of the narrows and set on a collision course with the oncoming Tlatetexoani. Pilot Namiton did not immediately recognize the danger posed by the Tlatetexoani due to the lack of a guard ship escort or proper warning flags that would normally be raised to indicate the vessel's dangerous cargo, measures not taken by the crew of the Tlatetexoani for the purposes of secrecy and expediency as they had already been delayed by bad weather on the Tecolotlan-Angatahuaca leg of their journey. As a result, irate pilot Namiton as well as Captain Marjuña aboard the Pasca who had been made to yield twice already now insisted through the blasts of their signal horn that they would not yield and that the Tlatetexoani must do so instead. For his part, pilot Tlamac aboard the Tlatetexoani overestimated the maneuverability of the heavily laden ship and had already found himself uncomfortably close to the western shore of the narrows where Peyon was located, and so had little room to yield even if he wanted to. Captain Coyametl for his part insisted to Tlamac that it should be the Pasca that should yield as his own ship was carrying the volatile cargo and was also markedly slower than the Pasca and should be given the right of way.
The poor coordination of the Narrows traffic and the miscommunications which ensued between the Pasca and the Tlatetexoani resulted in the two vessels colliding as the latter maneuvered to avoid the western shore and the former maneuvered to avoid the latter. The bow of the Pasca struck and punctured the hull of the Tlatetexoani at 9:49 am, rupturing a number of the sparkless containment partitions within the Tlatetexoani's hold. The collision did not disturb the well secured high explosives, but did break open the barrels containing the fuel oil and hydrocarbon mixtures which quickly filled the hold with flammable fumes. Which it is not known exactly where the ignition spark came from, it is considered likely that it came from the steel hulls of the two stricken ships scraping together which would have created a shower of sparks sufficient to ignite the highly volatile fuel-air mixture permeating the Tlatetexoani. Fire quickly spread through the Tlatetexoani thanks to the spilled propellants which defeated all of the fire retardant measures put in place aboard the ship. As the fire engulfed the bow of the ship, it cut off most of the crew from their firefighting equipment, the signals and even the anchor. Captain Coyametl attempted to scuttle the ship, believing that this would douse the flames and thus avoid disaster, but was unable to begin the process as the fire had already damaged the pumps and valves necessary to flood the hold and successfully scuttle the vessel. Unable to combat the fire or mitigate the rapidly deteriorating situation, the Captain gave the order to abandon ship. As the two lifeboats had been on the bow section of the vessel, the crew had no choice but to jump into the water and swim for shore.
At the same time, the Pasca had pulled apart from the stricken Tlatetexoani and had come alongside in an effort to fight the fire raging aboard the vessel. She was also signaling the harbor authorities to dispatch rescue vessels. Within a few minutes of the fire starting aboard the Tlatetexoani, a crewmember from the stricken ship was brought aboard and warned the Pasca bridge crew of the danger, telling them to flee while they could. Captain Marjuña was reluctant to do so and delayed such an action in order to pick up four more of the Tlatetexoani's crew from the waters of the Xaltozan narrows before finally being convinced to cease fighting the fire and leave the vicinity of the burning ship. By this time, the Tlatetexoani had drifted towards the town of Peyon and run aground near the wharf. Many onlookers from the town gathered to observe the burning ship, called over by the column of smoke in the sky, while a number of locals launched their fishing vessels to help fight the fire and pick up crewmembers from the water. These crewmembers shouted dire warnings to the onlookers and those attempting to contain the fire, calling for them to run as far as possible from here, but were largely ignored.
Explosion
At 10:09 am, exactly 20 minutes after the collision and the start of the fire, the inferno aboard the Tlatetexoani reached the temperature needed to instantly ignite the thousands of tons of picric acid, the explosion of which set off the TNT and detonated the entire cargo of the ship at once. With the simultaneous ignition of all the compounds in the hold, temperatures would have reached approximately 5,000 degrees celsius as tremendous energy was released and pressure built within the hull. The steel material of the vessel's hull held just long enough to contain the buildup of pressure from the ignition for less than a second, releasing it all at once as the force inside the ship destroyed the hull and reduced it to small pieces which flew outwards at great speed at the leading edge of the pressure wave. The water surrounding the Tlatetexoani was instantly vaporized, as were many of the people gathered on the nearby shore and on the boats attempting to combat the fire.
The blast itself destroyed or severely damaged buildings within a 3 kilometer radius, encompassing the entirety of the town of Peyon. Wood, brick and even concrete and stone constructions were leveled by the force of the pressure wave, while still more damage was done by the near-molten steel fragments of the Tlatetexoani's hull propelled in all directions at a velocity of 1,000 meters per second. The material which had been ejected upward rained down on the waterway, Peyon and even further afield. The deformed shank of the ship's anchor landed 8 kilometers away in the outskirts of Amegatlan, damaging a tortilleria. The force of the blast shattered windows across the greater Angatahuaca region including the city itself, and would be strong enough to be felt in Tequitinitlan many hundreds of kilometers away. A pyrocumulus cloud rose some 4 kilometers into the sky, marking the site of the explosion.
Impact
Most of the damage was done within moments of the explosion. A number of Peyon residents, the fishermen in particular, avoided the blast as they had been aboard their fishing vessels and away from the site of the disaster by 10 am. Their families remaining in the town, as well as the rest of the townsfolk, were not so lucky. Of the 982 confirmed deaths resulting from the explosion, more than 700 were killed not directly by the blast but by falling debris from the buildings toppled by the force of the explosion. Many of these bodies were partially or completely buried beneath rubble and would not be recovered until several days after the disaster, after the Peyon railway bridge had been restored and heavy equipment could be brought in to excavate the ruins. An unknown number of those killed had been near the stricken Tlatetexoani, likely being vaporized instantly by the heat and energy of the explosion. An exact number of those who died in this way could not be established as no remains remained for positive identification. The tsunami generated by seawater surging into the void created by the blast rose to some 20 meters at its highest. The wave was responsible for the less severe but far more widespread destruction which was visited on the many coastal settlements of Angatahuaca bay, including Angatahuaca itself where it caused flooding and damage to the port facilities but no casualties. The tsunami caused a ferry in Amegatlan to capsize, leading to the drowning of ten people, as well as the death of a dockworker who was swept away in the Amegatlan side of the port facilities.
A fire and secondary explosion occurred at the Zacapine arsenal in Peyon, killing 24 most of which were Zacapine servicemembers. Fortunately, those who were inside the barracks at the time survived thanks to the sturdy construction of the structure and helped to coordinate the immediate response efforts within the town. Their involvement in evacuating the wounded and preforming medical assistance saved many lives and expedited the larger rescue efforts which followed. The force of the blast had deformed the steel of the Peyon railway bridge and effectively cut off the town by land, forcing much of the evacuation of the wounded to be done by sea. Much of the docks on the south side of town were very close to where the Tlatetexoani had run aground, and so had been totally destroyed. The walking wounded were instead brought to the beach on the north side of town to be loaded onto dinghies and taken to waiting vessels for transportation to Angatahuaca for treatment. Within an hour of the disaster, the Zacapine military had brought the first medical personnel ashore at Peyon beach to set up a makeshift field hospital and treat those casualties who were still alive but could not be moved by boat to a hospital for treatment.
Captain Pizatzi Coyametl refused to disembark the doomed Tlatetexoani and was killed instantly in the blast. Of the crew of the stricken ship, three drowned after abandoning ship into the cold waters of the Xaltozan and one was killed by flying debris carried by the explosion while fleeing, while the rest of those who had made it to shore fled Peyon after failing to convince the townsfolk to evacuate and survived. The Pasca was carried by the tsunami and ran aground on the eastern shore of the Xaltozan, receiving heavy damage to her keel and ultimately being towed to Amegatlan-Angatahuaca to be scrapped. She had escaped almost totally unscathed from the collision without any injuries among the crew, but would suffer five fatalities from the explosion, including the Zacapine harbor pilot Xolotl Namiton who was largely blamed for the disaster in later years. Captain Insustria Marjuña was injured but survived the incident, as did the five members of the Tlatetexoani's crew that the Pasca had picked up.