1924 Nixon Nitration Works disaster
Coordinates: 40°32′18″N 74°22′43″W / 40.538333°N 74.378611°W The 1924 Nixon Nitration Works disaster was an explosion and fire that claimed many lives and destroyed several square miles of New Jersey factories. It began on Saturday morning, March 1, 1924, when an explosion destroyed a building in Nixon, New Jersey (an area within present-day Edison, New Jersey) used for processing ammonium nitrate. The 11:15 a.m. explosion touched off fires in surrounding buildings in the Nixon Nitration Works that contained other highly flammable materials. The disaster killed twenty persons, destroyed forty buildings, and demolished the “tiny industrial town of Nixon, New Jersey.”
The Nixon Nitration Works, which included a number of plants, covered about 12 square miles (3,100 ha) on the Raritan River, near New Brunswick, in what was then officially known as Raritan Township (later changed to Edison) and unofficially known as Nixon, New Jersey. It was originally created by naval architect and industrialist Lewis Nixon in 1915, upon the outbreak of World War I, to supply some of the warring nations of Europe with gunpowder and other war materials. When the war ended its facilities were put to broader uses, involving other explosive materials.
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