2 comments

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  • Hi there.. sorry I'm just now seeing your message. The extensive research that I have done and the survivors that I talked to, plus the pictures taken by the Kingsport Times and the Kingsport News of the smoke billowing up from the plant, all document the Aniline Plant being exactly halfway between Wilcox Drive and South Eastman Road, along the riverbank. It is clearly documented by Eastman in that location. Because of its location, the Aniline Plant was also connected to the Holston Ordinance Plant by direct rail line and a insulated pipeline that ran side by side along rhe riverbank for safety (leakage) reasons. That rail line and the pipeline are still there today. For the plant to have been where you say, the rail line from H.O.W. would have had to cross the part of the property that owner Eastman leased (and still does) to the Glass Plant, and that is impossible. Also sorry to report, but the plant was nowhere near Sevier Avenue.. the closest that Sevier comes to Eastman property is the six blocks Sevier is from Lincoln Street (parallel to Lincoln, Eastman's northern boundary). The Aniline Plant (again, for safety reasons) was nowhere near Lincoln Street, and because of its nature, would not have been built close to a civilized population. Had it been, the damage from the blast would have leveled every single house between Wilcox and Eastman Road, killed dozens of people in that neighborhood, plus, done extensive damage to the Borden (J.P. Stevens plant).. Newspaper accounts say, that plant had little to no damage at all. All of my information can be backed up with documentation from Eastman, eyewitness accounts, newspaper stories and pictures. Being a journalist, I am curious to your evidence of the location of the Aniline Plant? Statements from former plant workers, factual documentation, pictures of the area, etc. Please contact me so we can discuss this. Calvin Sneed (csneed@newschannel9.com)

  • said douglassalumni

  • 2008.02.03 at 18:16:13 PST

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  • Riverview, by far, was not the closest neighborhood to the blast. The aniline plant was only yards from Sevier Street and the Borden Plant neighborhood...

  • said SlaterT16

  • 2007.12.26 at 19:47:47 PST

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