S3 Ep6: Deadly Blaze: The Thiokol Factory Explosion

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At the height of the space race, the arrival of the Thiokol chemical company was supposed to bring jobs and opportunities for the small Georgia town of Woodbine. But a tragic explosion in 1971 killed 29 workers and left many of the survivors in the community entangled in lawsuits for decades afterwards.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they change laws, change society, or even
0:14.5	earn the label crime of the century.
0:18.5	But the stories that made headlines and decades passed aren't necessarily remembered today.
0:25.1	I remember Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of this show, I'll examine
0:30.2	a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.
0:36.7	This is crimes of the centuries.
0:52.6	On January of 1964, residents of Woodbine, Georgia got exciting news.
0:59.4	Their small community had welcomed a cutting-edge outfit called FIACOL chemical corporation
1:05.0	to the neighborhood that promised to bring steady, full-time work to potentially hundreds
1:10.4	of people in the region.
1:12.5	The plan was to build powerful, space shuttle boosters.
1:17.4	The day officials flipped the switch to power the plant, Governor Carl Sanders declared
1:23.1	it was a, quote, milestone in what I visualized as the beginning of the space-age industry
1:29.4	in Georgia.
1:32.9	It wouldn't end up being that at all, but it did bring reliable work to women like
1:37.6	Hadi Fogel and promised to live not just her, but her entire family out of poverty.
1:43.7	They created a close-knit family of employees who not just worked together and met at the
1:47.9	local diner for lunch, but who attended each other's birthday parties and weddings.
1:53.1	All of this was enough to make the company beloved in the eyes of most.
1:58.5	Until seven years after the groundbreaking, when a pretty common sight in one of FIACOL's
2:04.2	buildings, an open flame, caused an explosion that killed 29 workers, launched 17 years
2:11.4	of lawsuits, and played a role in two separate generation-defining tragedies.
	...

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