KINGMAN, Ariz. — It was on July 5, 1973, when Bob Casson remembers hearing the tones for the call in his family's home.
Bob was 11 at the time. His father, Bill Casson, was the manager of the utility company in town and a captain on the mostly volunteer fire department in Kingman. A department Bob would later join himself.
Bob remembers calling his dad at work.
"We had a direct line to his desk and called and told him that there was a fire at Doxol," Bob said.
The fire started while propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank.
Bob recalls watching the fire at a neighboring house with his little brother.
"I can still vividly remember when the pressure relief valves were let loose and you had a 45-degree angle flame and a 90-degree angle flame shoot 30-40 feet into the air," Bob said.
Wayne Davis responded to the fire too. It was just his second fire of what would be a nearly 38-year career at Kingman Fire Department.
"We just pulled off the property across the main drag through town - Andy Devine - when the BLEVE occurred," Davis said.
A BLEVE is a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.
"It was hot. I mean, I couldn't believe the heat that was coming down and I got burned," Davis said.
"We stood there for what seemed like minutes just staring but it was seconds," Bob said. "But 50 years later, it still hits."
Mike Casson, Bob's older brother, remembers being called back to Kingman from work in Bullhead City.
"We got up on top of the Union Pass and you could see the tremendous amount of black smoke from Kingman," Mike said. "And I remember Tim said, 'Oh my God, that's dad.'"
Bill Casson was one of 11 firefighters who died in the explosion or in the days following. A civilian was also killed and another 107 people were injured.
"He was very, very committed to his family, to his profession and to the fire department," Mike said.
The tragedy not only affecting the victim's families but Kingman as a whole.
A memorial stands in Kingman to honor the lives lost, and the community will gather on Friday, July 7, at 2 p.m. at Lee Williams High School to commemorate the anniversary this year.
"The men that lost their lives were, you know, the principal of the high school, manager of the electric company, business owners," Davis said. "I mean, everybody knows everybody, and it really hit deep."
"The holistic impact that it had on the community is something that some people will never see, never feel, never understand," Mike said.
Bob says it was his close family coming together that helped them move forward from the tragedy.
"The big word is closure, and in my opinion, there's no such thing as closure. You're gonna have to live with it the rest of your life. But what's gonna make or break is how you're able to handle it and go on from there," Bob said.
What the Kingman BLEVE did change was firefighter training on these kinds of incidents.
"They use that scenario for a lot of years to train people how to deal with propane emergencies and railcar emergencies," Mike said, who also dedicated his career to the fire service across several positions in Arizona.
"It just sort of gives you a feeling that these men didn't lose their life for nothing," Davis said.
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