On April 14, 1944, a ship lying outside Mumbai’s Victoria Dock caught fire, resulting in two explosions that left around a 1,000 dead, thousands injured, and several buildings in the city destroyed.
The raging inferno was visible for miles across the city, and took three days of efforts by dozens of firefighters to be doused.
The 1944 Bombay Docks Explosions
In the early months of 1944, when World War II had gripped Asia, the British cargo ship ‘Fort Stikine’ was carrying tonnes of explosives, fighter aircraft and gold bullion from Birkenhead in the UK to Mumbai.
En route, the Fort Stikine picked up hundreds of cotton bales from Karachi, which were stored one level below 300 tonnes of dynamite, despite the threat of combustion.
In the afternoon of April 14, when the ship was moored at Mumbai’s Victoria Dock, a fire was detected aboard, which continued to rage despite firefighting efforts. Within a few hours, the dynamite was ignited, and two massive explosions one after the other rocked Mumbai’s immediate neighbourhoods, causing one of the city’s deadliest fires.
Damage Caused
The explosions caused 12 ships docked in the vicinity to be destroyed– the force from the blast caused one 4000-tonne ship to be flung onto land.
Everyone in close proximity was killed; the casualties have been estimated between 800 and 1,300, which included Bombay Port Trust workers, army and navy personnel, sailors and policemen.
Like in Beirut, the second explosion caused greater damage in Mumbai as well , “The second explosion probably caused more casualties. After the first explosion scores of people made their way towards the direction from which rose thick black smoke in huge columns and were caught unawares by the second explosion. Pedestrians and sightseers were blown off their feet and motorcars overturned. An immense volume of thick black smoke that rose covered the sky.
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