U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who grew up in nearby La Marque, came from Washington, D.C., to speak about those who died and how the blast terrified her that day. Monsanto Chemical Co. She and co-workers crawled from the rubble of their collapsed building. A piece of steel had shot through the roof of her station wagon, pinning it to the ground like a mounted butterfly. Investigators think the fire aboard the docked Grandcamp was caused by a discarded cigarette. It was a fatally beautiful fire of spiraling red and purple smoke that lured 200 spectators to their deaths.
Ammonium nitrate is the same substance used in the Oklahoma City bombing.
In contrast to the 2,300 tons of fertilizer on the Grandcamp, less than three tons of ammonium nitrate was believed to have caused the explosion that blew away a large piece of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Legendre and her mother repeatedly visited the morgues in their six-week search for her father. Legendre's mother had used to mend his pants.