TEXAS CITY, Texas – Despite it being the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history, Texas City still wants to remember what happened April 16, 1947. The reason? It's because of the resolve the community showed that day and every day after that for 70 years.
The actual anniversary of the disaster isn't until this Sunday, but the city honored its firefighters Wednesday because officials didn't want to disrupt Easter Weekend.
Texas City Fire Chief David Zacherl read the names of each of the 27 firefighters and their chief who lost their lives in the accident. After each name was read, a firefighter rang the fire bell.
"I never will forget these people that gave their lives," said Ernestina Moreno, a survivor of the blast.
94-year-old survivor Julio Luna first reported the fire on the French ship, the S.S. Grandcamp.
"I smelled the fire and I said, 'there's a fire in the ship,'" Luna recalled.
The 27 Texas City firefighters and their chief tried to put out that fire, but it was too late.
Raw video: Ceremony honors victims of 1947 Texas City Disaster
"They didn't know they were standing directly on top of the time bomb," said Lynn Ray Ellison, who was 6 years old at the time. Now 76, he still remembers everything he saw and heard that day.
"It sounded like a noise I've never heard before," Ellison said, referring to the explosion.
The ship had ammonium nitrate onboard and mixed with the flames; it exploded, crippling the city.
The blast wascso powerful, windows were shattered 40 miles north in Houston.
Fifteen hours later, there was a second major ship explosion but that one wasn't nearly as destructive as the first.
"We were fortunate to survive it 70 years later," Ellison said.
All told, well over 500 people were killed.
PHOTOS: Look back at 1947 Texas City Disaster
Survivors supported pins that read "I was there," and shared their stories.
"Everybody around me was dead except me," Moreno said.
Then-17-year-old Ernestina Moreno was walking to school when the ship detonated.
The explosion caused debris to collapse on top of her. The doctors told her she'd never walk again but she defied the odds.
"I have no feeling in my leg, that's all the movement I can do," she said, showing she can only lift her leg an inch or so off the ground.
The community turned up again: not only paying tribute but showing the resolve this city continues to have.
"I don't think that anybody in Texas City that wasn't touched (by the disaster) in one way or another," Moreno said.
"There are many theories as to what caused the fire on the ship, but even 70 years later, there's nothing conclusive.