Low Moor Explosion

The Low Moor Explosion was a fire and a series of explosions at a munitions factory in Low Moor, Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire in August 1916. The factory was manufacturing picric acid to be used as an explosive for the First World War effort and was well alight when the Bradford Fire Brigade arrived. A massive explosion and a series of smaller ones killed 40 people including on-site workers, a railwayman and six firemen who had attended the fire from the Odsal and Nelson Street fire stations. The investigation after the event initially focussed suspicion on some Belgian workers at the plant, who were accused of having German sympathies. This was refuted completely with the cause being determined as poor storage of materials on site allowing for combustion. The disaster was not widely reported at the time due to reporting restrictions. Similar blanket bans on reporting these incidents affected other factories that suffered disasters such as the Ellisons plant in Heckmondwike in 1914 and the Barnbow plant in Leeds later in 1916. A monument to the dead firefighters was unveiled at Scholemoor Cemetery in Bradford in 1924, but the workers from the plant did not have a dedication to them until the 100-year anniversary in 2016, when a plaque was unveiled near to the former plant on the Spen Valley Greenway.