Kevin Saunders Returns to Corpus Christi to Commemorate 37th Anniversary of Explosion
Kevin Saunders
Safety Speaker | Motivational Speaker / Motivational Coach | Author at Saunders & Associates Speaking
Kevin Saunders was invited back to Corpus Christi, TX, earlier this week to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the public grain elevator explosion that changed his life. It was the largest explosion of its kind in Texas history, and many in the community remember the devastation that killed and injured so many grain elevator employees. As part of the commemoration, Kevin appeared on several media interviews, including USA Today, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, KIII-TV, and KRIS-TV.
Kevin shares his story of that fateful day when the huge grain elevator he was working at exploded, causing massive loss of life, and almost ending his own. After spending a year in the hospital, Kevin was left paralyzed completely from the chest down.
Kevin was only 23 years old and working as a USDA federal inspector on April 7, 1981. He had conducted a safety inspection the day before the blast occurred.
In an interview with the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, he said, “When I went through the safety check on that Monday, I found the dust collection system wasn’t working. I told my supervisor, and together we reported the failure to the head engineer of the Port of Corpus Christi. After our meeting, he said he would take it back to his bosses to see about fixing the dust collection systems. All of us were aware of the danger of a non-functional dust collection system. While grain itself isn’t explosive, any movement of the grain in the silos creates grain dust, which is a highly flammable when suspended in the air. In fact, grain dust is more explosive than dynamite or gasoline – approaching atomic energy based on the tremendous force created in a grain dust explosion.
“After sharing our findings with his bosses at the Port of Corpus Christi, the Engineer came back later that afternoon with their response. They said they didn’t have the 2 to 3 weeks to shut down the grain elevator to fix the dust collection system, or the $3 million dollars it would take to fix it.”
That inspection should have triggered an immediate shutdown and repairs. Instead, it was ignored with fatal consequences.
With the breakdown of the dust collection system, grain dust continued to build up to highly combustible levels. The very next day, at 3:10pm the elevator exploded when a worker for the Public Grain Elevator opened a can of phostoxin, a fumigant used to kill bugs and insects in grain. All phostoxin containers include a warning label that instructs handlers to “Open containers of metal phosphides in open air only and never in a flammable atmosphere.”