In the early hours of August 27th at the Standard Oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana, a 262 ft tall hydroformer violently exploded, sending enormous chunks of hot steel and concrete hurtling towards the residential area of the town and igniting an inferno that raged for 8 days.
Windows miles away shattered as people were thrown out of their beds. The 8,000 ft mushroom cloud could be seen for 30 miles, with many initially believing an atomic bomb had detonated.
Somewhat miraculously, only two deaths were recorded alongside the 40 injured:
A foreman at the refinery, Walter Rhea, had a heart attack upon witnessing the blast. Meanwhile, a 10 ft steel pipe ricocheted off a house, crashing into a bedroom where two children slept beside each other.
The previous night, 8-year-old Ron Plewniak had flipped in bed, orienting his head towards the window in hopes of catching cooler air in the summer heat. When the burning hot pipe crashed through their wall, it simultaneously severed Ron’s left leg and struck his 3-year-old brother Ricky in the head, killing him instantly.
The population of Whiting halved from its initial 10,000 in the aftermath, with Standard Oil (later BP) taking advantage of the exodus to purchase damaged and abandoned land to expand their operations.
4K version is up on Youtube now
Edited by me
16mm film reel found on eBay
Music is '008' by @tankhall
Thanks to MemoryLab Film for the digital transfer.
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