With this being the 50th anniversary of a devastating explosion originating in downtown Richmond Indiana, many people are coming forward to remember those who lost their lives to this tragic incident. Monuments have been construed and dedicated, books written and even a video documentary created.
I am writing to share my family’s story of the explosion that claimed so many lives. For many years my mother has mentioned how close she has come to death from childhood diseases and reckless drivers. She always mentioned the gas explosion in the list because she was so lucky that she missed being in blast zone by a few minutes.
My mother and her sister would save their limited allowance to by their mother ceramic figurines from a retail store located in downtown Richmond. They would normally walk across town and window shop or visit the movie theater. The store in question was located across from a gun shop that was storing an obscene amount of gunpowder bought in bulk for a reduced price. After visiting the store for some widow shopping they decided not to visit the movie theater and went their separate ways. My mother went home and her sister went to visit her aunts house. She does not remember much of the explosion except that it was very loud and running home. The explosion happened when she was just over a block away.
A gas explosion triggered a larger secondary explosion of gun powder. This killed people, injured many others and demolished buildings.
My paternal grandfather was working across the street in the back of an furniture store at the time of the explosion and was very lucky. Two school friends of my father died by being blown through a window.
My maternal grandfather worked for the city dump and was called to help cordon off the area. He had to run off a rather ghoulish reporter taking pictures of the aftermath. He had to yell at the idiot because he was actually stepping on body parts that were strewed about. The reported argued that it was his job to report on the story, my grandfather argued back that you are stepping on a detached finger and that is just disrespectful of the dead.
This was a horrible incident that came very close to killing my family before I was ever born.
