One minute after sunrise : the story of the Standard Oil Refinery fire of 1955

Whiting, Indiana – Saturday, August 27, 1955 – Sunrise, 6:11 a.m. It's 80 degrees in the shade, and most of the city's residents are still trying to sleep off an airless, oppressive night. But inside the plant at Whiting's biggest employer (and one of the world's largest oil refineries), something has gone horribly wrong...something that threatens to destroy the entire community. The clock changes. 6:12 a.m. This is the story of what happened at One Minute After Sunrise on that cataclysmic day in 1955, spoken in the words of the people who lived through it. It's the story of how, in the passing of a single instant, their lives and their community were changed forever. April 27, 1955. At the Standard Oil Refinery in Whiting, Indiana-- the city's biggest employer-- a 26-story tall "hydroformer" in the refinery became contaminated and exploded one minute after sunrise. After the massive explosion, debris of all sizes rained down upon the area and fires at the refinery threatened to burn out of control. Hmurovic tells the story of the explosion and its aftermath through interviews with those who lived in the adjacent neighborhoods when they were young