Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Alamo: congested, directions)

[SATX56]

We were living in Harlandale at the time of the Medina Base explosion. I remember we had a (Geiger Counter) radiation detector. Not sure if dad acquired it after the explosion or before. Likely after, to be sure if the truth of the accident was being told. Heard and read lots about it over the years.

I had a CB friend on Avondale back in the late 60's of early 70's. We got into a deal with Civil Defense at Auditorium Circle and SW Bell. They were gonna have some of us young guys wire up phone patches in mobile vans/trucks. I dropped out...had better things to do. Not sure I recall the fallout shelters on Probandt, but possibly. Must have been near Joske's Warehouse. I do remember something maybe a trucking outfit or tanks...??

[Vector28]

I was in a class in the only part of John Marshall that had two stories. Felt a strong jolt and had a rather good view of the mushroom cloud. We had a rather edgy male teacher who was always worried about cold war stuff turning hot. He ran out of the classroom and headed for the office to check things out.

[Willsatx]

Originally Posted by outafocus

Remember Gulf gasoline stations in San Antonio? When Chevron bought gulf in the mid 80s, all the Texas Gulf stations were rebranded Chevron. It looks like Gulf is making a presence in Texas again. There is at least one in Austin:

Gulf photos

The last Gulf I remember was at the corner of Bandera-Grissom, this was around 1990-91.

[Boss Rider]

The Medina incident was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever to have happened. What blew up was a bunker containing 123,000 pounds of high explosive components from obsolete weapons being disassembled at Medina. The only injuries were to three Atomic Energy Commission employees working nearby. There was very little contamination from the removed nuclear components stored in nearby bunkers. Exact cause was never determined, but most of the evidence points to an accidental contact between a forklift being used to move drums of explosives and a pallet of drums. I and the rest of Nuclear Emergency Team (NET) team were flown into Lackland (while everyone else was leaving) from Albuquerque to deal with it. Turned out to be easier than we thought it was going to be, but not exceptionally fun either. I lived a few miles from Medina, but couldn't even call home because they thought folks might panic if they knew a NET team was on-scene. The media would have had a field day as well.

[huckster]

I remember the explosion @ Medina, and the huge stir it caused but this is the first time I have ever heard an accurate account of what happened. But then again I was but a small child back then, how could I have understood ? I think I can remember accounts of windows shattering.
It seems as if the outcome of the explosion could have been far worse, Boss Rider, what with nuclear (nucular) components stored nearby. I wonder how much contamination could have occurred ?
One of the "worst non-nuclear explosions", incredible. It must have been quite an enormous explosion. I would also bet it made quite a large crater around the bunker ?
Almost as amazing is that noone got killed.
Do you know of how large the void in the earth caused by the explosion was ? How devastated was the area
around it ? You have stoked the curiosity.
I have read about the Texas City VanDecamp ship explosion, over 600 killed in that blast. That was really bad.I think it was about the same amount of explosives, 123,00 pounds but it was ammonium nitrate, not as detructive as TNT
however there were two explosions. The ship's fire spread to yet another ship moored close by before it could be removed.

Originally Posted by Boss Rider

The Medina incident was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever to have happened. What blew up was a bunker containing 123,000 pounds of high explosive components from obsolete weapons being disassembled at Medina. The only injuries were to three Atomic Energy Commission employees working nearby. There was very little contamination from the removed nuclear components stored in nearby bunkers. Exact cause was never determined, but most of the evidence points to an accidental contact between a forklift being used to move drums of explosives and a pallet of drums. I and the rest of Nuclear Emergency Team (NET) team were flown into Lackland (while everyone else was leaving) from Albuquerque to deal with it. Turned out to be easier than we thought it was going to be, but not exceptionally fun either. I lived a few miles from Medina, but couldn't even call home because they thought folks might panic if they knew a NET team was on-scene. The media would have had a field day as well.

[Boss Rider]

Huckster,
I really don't want to get into too much detail as this isn't really the place to do that. The bunker simply disappeared. The crater was roughly 30 feet deep, and about the same size as the bunker. The bunkers were designed to reflect the blast up by having thick floors and the walls thinned as they went up so there was only an inch of concrete at the top. In the explosion, the top gave way first and most of the blast went up, as planned. Because the design worked, the next bunker on either side survived with only a few cracks in the walls, so there was never any real chance anything else was going to get loose. My team and I gave a big sigh of relief when we saw the site, since we knew we didn't have a huge radioactive mess on our hands. If the design hadn't worked, all the bunkers would have gone off like a string of firecrackers. That would have been a nightmare. What little contamination there was dropped to nearly zero just 100 yards from the crater, and it was all on the surface and easy to clean up.
The blast broke windows out to about 10 miles from Medina. One picture I remember seeing was a Cadillac dealer in town with a convertible full of glass. There was also a school out 8 miles or so that had all the windows on one side blown in, but the kids were all outside at recess, so no none got hurt.
The three workers involved made it out OK because (apparently) the forklift driver hit one of the barrels and the friction of the explosive shifting in the barrel caused it to start to burn. He jumped off the lift and ran by the other two yelling for them to run as well. The explosive burned for a minute or so and then detonated. The shock wave knocked them off their feet and they got cuts and bruises, but nothing too bad.

[lggarm]

Does anyone remember this mainstay on Fredericksburg Rd in the '50s and 60s? There were two of them; one near old Wonderland Mall, and the other further down Fred Rd, heading towards downtown.

[TrapperL]

Was posted by Mudpuddle back on pg 251. If you were here and had car, you were at Buddies at one time or another.

[lggarm]

Buddy's Hamburgers on Fred Rd

[Dwangle]

There was a Buddy's on Vance Jackson between Adrian and Future. I alway's wondered if it was the same guys or somebody else. I think it is a mexican restaurant now (Big surprise!) but I haven't been down there because all the roads have changed since the Texas Highway Dept. took over.