The Bombay Explosion (or Bombay Docks Explosion) occurred on 14th April 1944, in the Victoria Docks of Bombay (now Mumbai) when the freighter, SS Fort Stikine, carrying a mixed cargo of cotton bales, gold bars, and ammunition including around 1400 tons of explosives, caught fire and was destroyed in two giant blasts, scattering debris, sinking surrounding ships and setting fire to the area, killing around 800 people.
The SS Fort Stikine was a 7142 gross register ton freighter built in 1942 in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, under a lend-lease agreement, and was named after Fort Stikine, a former outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company, located at what is now Wrangell, Alaska.
Sailing from Birkenhead on 24th February via Gibraltar, Port Said and Karachi, she arrived at Bombay on 12th April. Her cargo included explosives, munitions, Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft, raw cotton bales, barrels of oil, timber, scrap iron and £1-2 million of gold bullion in bars.
One officer described the cargo as "just about everything that will either burn or blow up". The vessel had berthed and was waiting to be unloaded on 14th April.
The crew were alerted of a fire onboard burning somewhere in the No. 2 hold in the mid-afternoon around 1400 hours. The crew, dockside fire teams and fireboats, were unable to extinguish the conflagration, despite pumping more than 900 tons of water into the ship, or find the source, due to dense smoke.
At 1550 hours, the order to abandon ship was given, and sixteen minutes later, there was a great explosion breaking the ship in two, shattering windows over 12 km away. The shower of burning material set fire to slums in the area. Around two square miles were ablaze in an 800 mt (870 yd) arc around the ship.
11 neighbouring vessels were sunk and the emergency personnel at the site suffered heavy losses. Attempts to fight the fire were dealt a further blow when a second explosion from the ship swept the area at 1634 hours. The two explosions were powerful enough to be recorded by seismographs at the Colaba Observatory in the city. It took three days to bring the fire under control, and later 8000 men toiled for seven months to remove around 500,000 tons of debris and bring the docks back into action.
The official death toll was 740, including 476 military personnel, 66 gallant officers and men of the Bombay Fire Brigade and 11 men of the Bombay Salvage Corps. Around 1800 people were injured; unofficial tallies run much higher. The occupants of the slums were largely unregistered. In total, 27 other vessels were sunk or damaged in both Victoria Dock and the neighbouring Prince's Dock. Overall, an area measuring 300 acres in the Bombay Docks was devastated.
The inquiry into the explosion identified the cotton bales as probably being the seat of the fire. It was critical of several errors: storing the cotton below the munitions, not displaying the red flag required to indicate a dangerous cargo on board, delaying unloading of the explosives, not using steam injectors to contain the fire and a delay in alerting the local fire brigade.
Many families lost all their belongings and were left with just the clothes on their back.
The Government took full responsibility for the disaster and monetary compensation was paid to citizens who made a claim for loss or damage to property. The total property loss according to the then value was approximately Rs. 100 crores.
During normal dredging operations being carried out periodically to maintain the depth of the docking bays, intact gold bars have been found sporadically as late as 2011 and returned to the British Government.
Mumbai Fire Brigade's headquarters at Byculla has a memorial built in memory of the firefighters who perished. The officers did not die in an emotional heat of battle but laid down their lives for the cause of safety, welfare and prosperity of the community. In recognition, the Govt. of India declared 14th April as Fire Service Day to be observed nationwide every year.
A Fire Safety Week is observed all over India every year from 14th-20th April in memory of the firemen who perished in this explosion.
