Disaster on Webb's Bait Farm | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- "On the 27th of May, 1983, on a farm near Benton, Tennessee a powerful explosion took place..."
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Don't play with fireworks - and certainly not illegal ones. Stay safe out there, everyone!
u too hun !new sub be safe all x
77 likes on "don't play with fireworks"?!? Wtf has this world come to?
Your narrative suggested Web's wife was implicated in the factory, but you never clarified that. Fail!
I'm very formal when I light fireworks. I throw firecrackers at people while I wear a tuxedo.
That's why you make your own fireworks. Those ones are legal. ;)
My first thought was fertilizer and farm chemicals, but an illegal fireworks operation really puts a twist in the story.
I don’t think a worm farm needs fertilizer. It’s not actually farming any plants
Last of the Albino Mexheecans what are you on about?
Last of the Albino Mexheecans angry much? You no speek English good
yup me too never figured fireworks
Yep, me too. Either that or a hellishly big still.
“He started a new line of business at the farm”
*Methampheta-*
“The manufacturing of illegal fireworks”
*-oh.*
Exactly what I was thinking!
I was thinking “This screams meth lab”, then the plot twist!
I totally thought it was going to be meth too
Yup, that’s what I thought
Thats where I thought this was going.
my favourite pandemic discovery: this channel
Same!!!
Yo same.
Facts
True
Mine too!!
He was at his wits ends, money was tight and he felt unsure, then with a flourish and tip of the hat, the devil appeared and said "I can help with that."
My thought exactly.
@@ulalaFrugilega the devil often appears when one is at their lowest. he offers a quick fix, fast cash, a simple repair and when you ask the cost he simply says "it will be paid, in due time~"
@@nyotamwuaji6484 True, but you know what else appears in such circumstances! Some sort of angel, just helping out, then saying: as payment, just be kind ti the next fella. I've had those, so I know.
Please be quiet.
This is not devil stuff nor amgel stuff. This is a man wanting to make ends meet, blaming some mythical "ultimate evil" is bad habit and not how things work.
The devil barely made any deals in the books and it was usually with gods permission to test his believers faith and it in turn ended with the believer being returned into gods protectiona and rewarded with being saved. There was no test in faith for this, nor was there anything of the sort.
I know this is 2 months old but I can not help it but say in a rude fashion.
Shut the fuck up, pleas for once cut the religious crap out and see for what it was.
Firework obliterating people because it was an illegal run of it to make ends meet.
@@ColdNorth0628 This is literally just a saying. Stop being so butthurt that other people exist on this planet with differing beliefs than you. Cry some more.
If he wanted a little extra income, why he didn't he just grow magic mushrooms like all the other worm farmers?
Yeah abs those have way more medical value too.
@@Val.Kyrie. And they don't explode.
Ha!
@@laceneil4570 might blow your mind though 💥
In usa thats probably more illegal than making illegal fireworks (explosives)
The forensic anthropologist mentioned in this video is actually a good friend of my father, they met when he was studying under him in UT. The anthropologist's name is William M. Bass, he also runs what he calls a "body farm" where he studies decomposition in nature.
My takeaway? Being a master baiter doesn't pay all that well. You'll need a sideline.
Twisted C V, very very twisted.
Lol! So much for keeping my mouth shut!
Did Seaman Staines work there?
@@annescholey6546 Yep, and he's ok. Thanks to a stroke of luck he got off early that day. So to speak.
Best to stick to cutting the bait.
OK, the big "FIREWORKS" sign shown at their farm at the end makes me question why they didn't instantly know what happened!
That wasn't at the farm. That was Bramblett's fireworks store.
I recognized Beambletts sign immediately! East Tennessean 🙋♀️
😂
This dude’s voice is so calming I’ve fallen to sleep watching these videos more times than I can count
I'm not sure that is his intention.
makes my eyes heavy 😂 i never get through the whole video cause his voice puts me to sleep
@@graceseay6871 i don't even remember half of the videos I've watched on this channel 😂
That’s because they are boring as fuck.
It is. Nice soothing voice.
God, this channel is so good. Never change anything, this is perfect.
He wasn't making bombs, he was making M-80's. Only in Tennessee.
Hey, Dennis, your dad's looking for you.
@@termsofusepolice Yeah, I heard about that.
Yeah I kind if double take'd when he listed the TYPES of explosives they were making. Sad to think how cheap it was and how incredibly dangerous it was to do this, and also the other location the organizer was involved in.
Flash powder...in mass quantities...death follows
Go big or go home.
I just want to say I do appreciate that in your videos that you include both metric and U.S. customary units whenever you give measurements.
I remember this event. I was a D.J. for WBIN radio in Benton. I was on air when the explosion occurred. Our GM, Jasper Woody, would be on scene most of the day. I drove up as soon as my shift was over. Thankfully they had most of the remains covered up by the time I got there. 11 of the dead were Webb's family members. Cousins, uncles, mother, brother etc. The day after they found a portion of a torso in an attic, after crashing thru the tin roof. This was 500 yards from the blast site. The blast cloud was much, much more than mentioned here. First we all heard the blast. Then 2 front windows broke. We all ran outside. Everyone in town could see it. The thing I remember most about the blast site, was the complete lack of debris and no grass for a hundred yards in all directions.
Some video suggestions:
Piaseki PA-97
Disappearance of McCann family in Alberta
Murder of Tim McLean
Cuyahoga River fire
Jeez that Tim McLean story is horrendous, I’ve got family in Portage La Prairie and have been there many times, never knew about this until now. Would certainly make for an interesting and unsettling video.
@@yungamurai Can you believe they let the bastard walk!? That's Canada under the liberal party for you I guess 🙄
@@lhaviland8602 Absolutely unbelievable, I had to check if it was true after reading the wiki article. How this person could be considered rehabilitated after a few years in a hospital having spontaneously decapitated and butchered a random person is literally insane.
also PETA fucking made an ad about Tim McLean comparing it to eating animal meat for their own benefit
@@andrewliu6592 PETA are an awful organization half of the vegan community hate them so it really is that bad
The Trout did it. I saw them flop away
Don’t know I think I saw the red herring do it
There's something fishy about these comments...
@@Weelki idk man.. sounds like clickbait
At the start, I was thinking something like a scene out of Preacher.
@notfiveo bizarre but brilliant.
I'm coming back and liking all the videos i've watched from all my subs. This is the one that got me hooked on Fascinating Horror. Great video!
Imagine the first responders' face
"All units, all units. Theres been a massive explosion at Dan's bait farm."
You'd feel like you were in a surrealist comedy sketch for a split second.
Such interesting content, I have never heard of over half of these incidents in these vids, love it! 👍
These "Fascinating Horror" videos are great! When we have family over, after dinner we gather all the grandkids together to watch and learn how bodies are splattered all over the place and blown to smithereens through all sorts of exciting, illegal operations.
The scariest thing is how you can make something so tragic sound so soothing with your voice...
"What could cause an explosion in rural Tennessee?"
"Um... meth?"
um, meth wasn't even heard of in 1983, so what is your point?
@@farmcentralohio wasn't it discovered in the 1890s? They gave it to soldiers in WWII
@@noxthemc7717 but meth labs weren't the problem they are today.
Whenever I hear Tennessee, I think meth.
Truly tragic but what bothers me most is that he only paid them a fiver per hour for obviously risking their health/lives
Minimum wage in 1983 was $3.50/hour.
@@MightyMezzoAnd in cash (untaxed), and in a rural area where the cost of living wasn't very high. Decent pay, although not "hazard pay".
I blew my right hand apart when I was 18 in '04, with a large homemade salute that had a fuse malfunction. 🤷🏻♂️
U.S. only allows a maximum of 50mg flash powder in firecrackers.
M80s for example have 3 grams.
Almost all the M80s (and larger) salutes people buy are homemade.
It's just rolled Kraft paper tubes + end caps, green visco fuse and flash powder. Flash powder at it's simplest is just aluminum powder and an oxidizer. It has to be mixed by hand in small quantities because it is sensitive to static and shock and cannot be mixed in the type of mills used for black powder.
It is very dangerous, even professional pyrotechnic makers are extremely careful with it.
M80s, blockbusters, quarter sticks" ashcans, silver salutes, cherry bombs etc are just a Kraft paper shell and varying amounts of flash powder. So I can see why people make them to sell, it's easy money, but dangerous to yourself and other people, including the ones who buy them.
Never heard of this event. You do a great job and I appreciate how you include measurements in meter as well as feet. Keep up the amazing work!
Imagine the body count if they included the worms : (
In fact the worms orchestrated the explosion and were all safe in their underground shelters.
1983 worm uprising
Holy shit, that's like a 20 minute drive from where I live.
I think they have job vacancies Craig
@@gazXspace Ha!
My home town has a bridge collapsing...and Mothman
I'm 10 minutes away! The property is now a white water rafting outfit, I think.
Workers earned $5.00 an hour that was twice the minimum wage at that year.
“What could cause such an explosion in rural Tennesse?” Me: lol meth
“Webb found a new line of business; Illegal fireworks” me: 👁👄👁
Just discovered your channel and really enjoy the interesting events you cover-- most of which are totally unknown to me. Thank you for your professional and informative approach.
Methane from worms, nope, meth lab, got it! Nope, firework factory, WTF!
It's amazing how much research was done as evidenced by this video's deep details.
I thought that the girlfriend running away from the explosion set it up for unexplained malicious intents, but it all came down to greed by the owner.
To this I say, Greed or Desperation?
If you google where this happened, it's now an outfitter called Big Frog. The lot and even the sign look similar to this day. Pretty wild. 1278 Welcome Valley Rd
Benton, Tennessee.
When your fireworks stand gets out of hand:
Initial thought:
What the hell did someone get up to, that they blow up a worm farm?
Fireworks? I don't know whether to be surprised or underwhelmed.
I live in East Tennessee and I've never heard about this till now
That's crazy!
This is why you never make deals with devils, no matter how desperate the situation
All those poor worms, needlessly dying in an explosion. I hope they notified the next of kin
“Named for its owner” not where I thought that was going.
Me: "What could happen on.a bait farm?" click
"Dangerous chemicals not necessary for this line of work"
So meth lab?
"Illegal fireworks"
What is this, Clerks: The Animated Series?
Never has the quote "Show me your friends and I will show you your future" rang more true.
The sign for the farm has got Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo on it !
Crazy story! Great video!
Imagine being thrown a football field by an explosion and surviving. Jesus
I have been binge-watching all these videos; reminds me of that great show, 1001 Ways To Die
Is this Obsolete Oddity? I love his stories!
Love your videos, keep up the good work.
That reminds me..
I need to stock up on fireworks....
The 4th is next month!!
I have a lot of experience with these types of shenanigans and it's usually the innocent that pay a majority of the time
My brain can't even comprehend the distances that are reported when explosions like this happen and people end up thrown 100+ yards away .... its insane
De-activating seized fireworks is also risky, and you have to follow set protocols. The contractor used on call "Temp" workers and didn't supervise. they started taking short cuts and not following procedure. I've left two job sites in Canada because the crew just didn't get the RISK of powder in the air in a contained space. Sounds like that's what happened here: not to mention if someone lit up.
Illegal fireworks. How horrible that people had to die for something so small. My heart honestly goes out to this man and his family :^(
Wow be responsible for the DEATH'S of 11 people while committing a Major Felony and 10 years was his sentence!? 🙄 I've heard of people getting LIFE in Prison for so much less!
They took into account that those who died were his family and friends, and he would not have deliberately murdered them and his own mother. The man turned himself in because it crushed him. In another case of which I know personally, here in Georgia, a man drove to his ex-wife's house with a rifle. In front of her two young children, he shot her, then tried to cut her throat. She died in the ambulance en route to the hospital. Her murderer was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
@@sharonpeek4578 Being his family shouldn't matter. He put human lives and risk and they paid for his complete idiocy. Life in prison would have been more than fair.
Mark De Mers, I didn't offer any opinion on whether the outcome was right or wrong. I only reminded GeO Arc of the reason for the sentence that had been stated in the video, then told of another case in which the sentence seemed strange.
@@sharonpeek4578 About that other case: It seems to be not as bad in public opinion, as reflected in law and it's appliance, if you killed a woman that was or is "yours". Anyway, that is my impression, collected over decades. So by now he probably runs around free and even more fucked up… no doubt ruining more women's lives. And who knows how those kids developed after this unimaginable trauma.
@@markdemers4705 he was desperate for money and probably scared of loosing everything, including them. a scared and desperate person looking for a way out and offered one, only to have it literally blow up on him. besides, he wasnt the big fish, and was probably lied to about it being safe.
What a coincidence, I happen to be watching this on the 4th of July.
A brilliantly constructed video with a great non sensational narrative. A sad subject but thank you for posting this.
Not how I saw that one going. At the start I was like "meth lab. It's a meth lab..."
what an obscure but intriguing story.
Wow I was convinced that you were going to say that they were cooking Meth. Mind blown! (No pun intended.)
I obviously agree that the guy who hooked him up with suppliers deserves jail, but it is hilarious they each got the same exact sentencing length when one was fully responsible for his own actions which resulted in all of these deaths. To me, Webb deserved a whole lot longer in jail, grief be damned.
cannot believe no one has made this a movie yet. it really has it all, and it’s sad.
Really like these lesser known stories. A lot of bigger channels just recycle the same old tragedies.
100% agree
Yes!
Agree mrballen recycles all old stories
cough Chris Watts
Yes! Hearing the same old incidents can get pretty boring, this is a welcome surprise
6:22 Oh, I just noticed in the newspaper shot that it said that Dr. William Bass helped them identify the bodies. He is from the University of Knoxville and is the guy who set up the first "body farm" and is considered one of the fathers of modern forensic anthropology.
He is identified on Wikipedia, too.
@@sludge4125 well duh
That would be the. University of TN at Knoxville.
East Tennessee 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾
Any relation to Billy Bass, that fish that sings "don't worry, be happy"?
my grandfather was one of the responding officers, he said bodies were strewn around, some in trees. crazy
I'm from the area, and have grown up hearing so much about this. That is correct, all the bodies were dismembered, and I'm pretty sure they didn't even know how many bodies there were at first. There's a chapter in Dr. Bass' book Beyond the Body Farm about this that goes into really gory detail.
@@jakkew5753 Ever hear about the doctor that was on a ladder by an El train? His watch "grabbed" the electricity (he never touched it) and he lost 3 limbs. Woke up 4 days later and tried to walk to the bathroom...
His description of what happens to the body where the legs narrow and the electricity has nowhere to go even stopped ME.
No idea what he was doing on a ladder near an El train...
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 No, hadn't heard of that one. I'll look it up.
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 I'd like to hear more about this, any additional information you may have to steer us in the right direction? Thanks
@LazerDog Laz Bradley County Officer in Cleveland TN. call bullshit all you want but i’ve heard that story from him at least 20 times
Not to overshadow this awful story, but your channel really is incredible. You are concise, thorough, articulate, and you get straight to the point. You deserve the subscribers you're getting. Congrats on 100K.
Omg, Charlie Darwin, I’m a huge fan!
Yeah, so many of these historical horror channels lean hard into clickbait and gratuitousness. This channel definitely feels more fact and mood-driven.
Agreed. And unlike many other channels (cough Horror Stories cough) he puts a lot of effort into his videos, in terms of research and editing. I also appreciate how many of his stories teach a lesson about safety and corruption and so on, and he doesn't focus on the tragedy nor exploit it as clickbait. Massive respect for this channel and this lovely community!
@@hermionestranger4964 So agree. My bro showed his sons graphic pix of consequences of fireworks accidents, when they were tweens. My bro was a pyro at their age, so ....
I just find something annoying about you denigrating Horror Stories. I am not sure why you felt the need to do so.
I respect Webb for his reaction to the situation. He handed himself in, he took responsibility, and he pointed them towards the people who’d started this. I think he was genuinely remorseful for what happened. Poor sod.
Yeah. He just wanted to keep his bait farm from going under, i don't think he ever anticipated an explosion. But when ordinary people start handling materials they're not qualified/trained to handle safely things inevitably go wrong, sometimes explosively.
Stupid is as stupid does.
-A Wise Man
@@killman369547 I don’t know about keeping it from going under…he had another job, and a staff of 11. It doesn’t take much, I imagine, to keep a bait farm afloat. Worms aren’t exactly high maintenance…not that it’s not work. I just think this has more to do with greed than need.
Ya think? He lost 11 family and friends in one go, all of whom he and his wife hired. Those people wouldn’t have been there if not for the decisions they made. Obviously they shouldn’t have been doing what they were doing, but it had to have seemed like it wasn’t “that bad” from their perspective. After all, you’re making fireworks for people to enjoy. It’s not like you’re making guns, liquor, or drugs.
For that fairly innocent crime he lost 11 people in his life. Think about that for a second. Make a list of your loved ones in your head and cross off eleven names - those people are dead now, because of you. One of them was your own mother.
It seems pretty obvious to me that he would feel genuine remorse. I don’t know if I would even be able to live with myself after that.
Remember that he only did this out of desperation too, it's not like he was overly greedy
As a former member of a pyrotechnic crew, this story hits home. On July 2, 2002 my 2 “show-biz mentors” were in Florida prepping a show for the upcoming 4th of July. Just 3 days prior we had finished an unrelated show in Orlando at the TD Waterhouse arena where the Magic (NBA) play. I was scheduled to work the same show, but a nasty case of food poisoning sidelined me. I traveled home and had a 10 day break before heading back on tour. Fast forward to July 2, and I saw a breaking news story on CNN about a massive explosion in the same area my friends were. I immediately called the two of them (who happened to be brothers), no answer. It soon became clear that the blast was related to them and I knew there was slim chance of survival.
In shows like this one, there is an area removed from the public referred to as the boneyard where product is unloaded off a large 53’ trailer and shuttled to the site of the shoot where it is staged, wired, and detonated. While one of the brothers was in the trailer bringing pallets of explosives to the rear to be plucked off w/ a forklift, the brother in the truck noticed a plume of smoke rising from between 2 pallets and began to scream warnings to the others to run. It was too late. Seconds later the truck ignited and released such an intense blast that windows broke a mile away. The truck driver’s wife had wandered a couple hundred yards away and was able to dive into a shallow “puddle” just deep enough to submerge herself under as the intense heat and fire roared overhead. When she surfaced she saw her husband stumbling toward her with a hole in his midsection large enough to put her arm straight through him, and she saw my close friend near the base of a tree charred black but still gasping for air. He died shortly after. Her husband died the following day in the hospital in what I can only imagine to be extreme agony with 3rd degree burns over 90% of his body. The other brother had to be identified by a USMC Marine Corp tattoo on his forearm he got while serving in Vietnam and dental records. They sat out there in the boneyard for almost 72 hours, as investigators were concerned w/ live explosives that weren’t detonated during the initial blast. In total 5 lost their lives and the trucker’s wife was the sole survivor. To this day that’s the hardest loss of my life, and I never did another pyro shoot after that. Those were professionals that took their job very seriously and were entrusted to do some of the largest firework shows in the world, and tragically died because of a freak accident. RIP Brian & Gene, thank you for helping me become the man I am today.
PS, Next time you see a fireworks show, remember that the red and green shells are the cheapest colors by far. And that hard-working brave men and women are risking their lives in order to give you 20 minutes of patriotic or celebratory entertainment. Take a second to acknowledge that, and maybe think of my heroes, Brian and Gene. Be safe everyone.
wow that must be very traumatizing. i am sorry for your losses
My heartfelt condolences, for the loss of your dear friends.
I am so sorry for your losses. That's truly awful.
F
The articles I found say July 3, 2003
The worms come in, the worms come out, the worms accidentally set off illegal fireworks on your snout.
Can’t trust em
They eat your eyes they eat your nose because they made you explode
The worms play pea knuckle on your snout. - scary stories... I see what u did there, well done
Ha!
@@tommyz1082 pinochle **
My mother, Great Uncle, and Great Aunt died in this tragedy. God rest their souls. She left behind 2 sons (2 and 4 years old at the time). It's been almost 40 years but the wound has never healed. I wish I could have known my mother. I know she was just trying to make a living for our family as my Dad's work at Magic Chef had gone on strike. I love you Dixie Lynn Freeman.
Condolences to you for your dire loss.
I'm so sorry for your loss... and yes, I have no doubt your mother and the other members of your family were just trying to provide in this hard world. I live in Knoxville.. and this.. well I don't want to say story bc obviously it isn't a story, it was people's lives.. but since the first time I heard of this tragedy it hurt my heart. I hope one day you will indeed meet your mother at the end of this ride.. many blessings to you and your family, take care.
@@TheKonga88 not cool man
@@TheKonga88 We get it, you have the mental age of a 9 year old. Seriously not cool dude
@@TheKonga88 do you get a kick out of being such an asshole for no reason? What a miserable life you must live.
I feel like anyone who runs a bait farm is eventually going to use it as a cover for something. Farming worms sounds immensely depressing.
Not for everyone, I saw a video on raising worms, got so into it and decided I wanted to do it as a side hobby. That said, I’m weird.
There are some (allegedly) perfectly normal people who farm crickets, meal worms and such.
It’s pretty cool actually worms are incredibly easy to farm and are good for the soil biology.
@@dalton9493
That’s what it seemed like to me. I thought I’d have a small one and give them away to people for their gardens.
Even more depressing is waking up everyday driving an hour to spend 10 hours around people you don’t like then driving an hour home and doing it all over again for a lifetime of a career. Being around worms isn’t all that bad being able to drink or whatever else you like with no liabilities what so ever without having to show up on time either....or at all for that matter with a completely laid back schedule.
"Hey buddy, you can't smoke in he..."
Look uncle. . . im getting a raise.
No you're not.
"Rubs socks on carpet furiously. Points finger"
Ok ok. Shake on it
"can I get a light?" "oh sur-"
🎵”Happy Birthday to you, Happy Bir....”🎵
@@crixxxxxxxxx Damn that went dark.
"I can't believe some people are stupid enough to smoke next to explosives like that!"
*vape explodes in pocket*
Thrown a football field! That’s hard to comprehend
The intensity of the shock wave must have been insane. Terrorists aiming for mass kill would cream over it. Hell, they wouldn't even need to leave nails and marbles in the midst of their devices.
And lived,, yea hard to comprehend
He was still close enough for the burns so he basically was inside the explosion, albeit just close enough.
Actually just under 2 football fields if we're talking about American football. I don't know how long futball fields are.
Football (or soccer) fields are about 110 to 120 yards long.
He was told his business would be booming. They, however, failed to specify what kind of boom it would be.
I feel bad for laughing!!!
Playing with dangerous Illegal Fireworks is like playing with Fire.
@@christinejorgens6577 It kinda is.
@@denisesalmon4496 same here
Exactly
I live about 15 minutes from Webb's. They were finding body parts in trees for about a week after this.
man thats crazy
What’s there now?
@@TerryFarrahyou could look it up.
I thought this was called Webb’s Bat Farm, and was curious to learn about how one farms bats
... ask wuhan... 🙃
Nothing to it. Just hire Batman as manager.
Carefully
Ask the Australians, they tend to know how things grow upside down... 🙃
Well you see, we're not farming the bats, were farming there, uh. . poop
"Was thrown the length of a foot and covered in 3rd degree burns, he survived" bro what??? who was this dude?? luke cage??
Who is Luke Cage?
Burns over 30% of his body.
A foot is not very far, a fart can make someone jump farther.
@@krashd That was a misquote. He was thrown the length of a football field...not one foot.
Wonder how he is, these days. I imagine he needs care, and Webb cares for him.
I was 3 years old when this happened but still remember it. My aunt Sybil died there. That is her car pictured at 3:02.
Christ
What happened to Webb after the prison sentence? I would imagine he’s dead by now?
Was your aunt webbs sister or something?
@@cigarsandpins4781 I'm pretty sure he's still alive. According to reports I've found, he lives about a mile from me. Don't know what he did after he got out of prison or what he does now, I would also like to know. I've also never met him.
@@ElvenSailor_Main No. We're not related to the Webbs at all. Her name was Sybil Hodge.
I almost feel shabby about liking these dark and sad stories. But they are immensely well narrated and with great respect for the victims of the accidents and their relatives. Each of these stories underlines the paramount importance of workplace safety and the terrifying horrors that may occur if safety standards are not taken seriously. 😥
They relive the story like giving it more respect than the original media report. I have heard of many of these stories but not with much detail.
Its not shabby. You are gaining knowledge.
I click on the like sign (if that's what you meant by "liking" them) to kinda bookmark the videos as my 'watched' videos. My memory has weakened considerably recently and i tend to forget if i watched a video or not (after say a few months) just by looking at its thumbnail.
I kept waiting for the words, “dynamite fishing”, but alas...they never came.
I kept waiting for the word "methamphetamine" and was delightedly surprised to be wrong...
😂 that reminded me of my dad and the fish pool incident.
We had this fish pool built in front of the house (for the love of fish), but for that particular year, the pool was infested with tadpoles during the rainy season, and followed by mosquitoe's larvae soon after. Fish had long gone by then.
Cleaning would take a lot of time, so my dad had the idea to try killing all the larvae in one fell swoop. So he lit up one small firecracker 🧨 and threw it in the water. *BOOM*
The water's gone, the pool's also done for 😂 man, I just love physics.
My dad just stood there laughing at the aftermath like an evil genius. Mission accomplished nonetheless
Ground up Mullein seeds work well.
When I heard "farm explosion" my first thought was meth lab. More profit, more prison time, just as dangerous.
Same.
Edit: I was not expecting fireworks
First thing I thought was fertilizer. Then I thought meth lab!!
@@80sbreed87 I thought fertilizer/compost pile overheating.
My first thought was methane. Those cow farts can be silent but deadly.
Same.
When I was a kid I used to drill out the black powder from model rocket engines and do things with it. Long story short, I never played around again after I burned my hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes off. It was the most embarrassing summer of my life and I could have lost my sight.
I remember i was camping and some idiot threw a model rocket engine in the campfire it flew out and hit me as we were running away. Burned my leg real bad still have the scar.
@@stimactzedvard7556 We used to put a small hole in eggs and drain the yolk and contents out. Then we would fill it back up with the black powder and use a fuse made of rolled up newspaper to light it. It made a really impressive boom and mushroom cloud when it worked. One time I was having trouble getting the fuse lit, so we soaked half of it in gasoline ☹️. I was leaning with my head right over it trying to light it when it went off. It was instant and the next thing I remember is just laying on my back coughing and squirming in pain. I had ice packs all over my head and face for days.
@@lucast3006 i used to buy gun powder and use empty air gun canistwrs id fill them with x amount of powder put an m80 fuse inside and crimp them shut with pliers. This was way before 9/11. They made a hell of a racket.
Did same, lighting a 55gallon drum fire with xylene. Just a big flash, and no eyebrows, eyelashes.
dude, you played w/ gunpower?? _how are you alive??_
store: *explodes*
the worms: "you get what you fucking deserve"
LOL!!
LMFAO
😂😂🤣🤣
Laffed
The worms: dirt, sun, dirt, water, dirt, sun, water, dirt, water...
My first thought was "they were cooking meth", but illegal fireworks also make a lot of sense. Either way, I don't think a bait farm is a very profitable enterprise at the best of times.
Wasn’t 1983 before meth? Wasn’t it more rock cocaine? Not saying meth wasn’t around then but I wasn’t aware
Probably makes 100 percent profif
@@arribaficationwineho32 meth has been around since the world war 2. The biker gang have been cooking meth since the 60’s. My dads buddy did like 15 years for cooking meth in the 70’s.
@@yankees29 I remember now learning abt meth use in the German army. Thanks. I have lately read hitler was an addict. Funny that never popped up in anything I read until lately.
@@arribaficationwineho32 yeah he was. So was JFK. Lol
This accident is absolutely horrible.
I'm studying chemistry at Uni and the thought of improper manipulation with such materials absolutely frightens me
Absolutely
I doubt you’ll ever come into contact with anywhere near the amount of chemicals to cause what happened here...
@@JosephQPublic he's studying chemistry. Industrial processes use quantities of chemicals that could (and have!) kill entire *cities* if no effective safety measures were implemented.
My sister lived in industrial area and there is this big chemical factory there. She told me one day the whole town was ordered to evacuate because there is a fire in the chem factory. Within a few hours the evacuation was cancelled as the fire was brought under control. Very scary because the industrial area is so big and surrounded by many houses, schools, gov offices and malls. The chem factory has their own fire and rescue team, by the way. I guess they are well equipped that's why they can control the fire before any explosion happens.
@@lilspiderlily read up on the Enschede Fireworks disaster about what happens when industrial sites are build too closely to residential site.
This is my hometown! Wasn’t alive at the time but there is still some old Tin from the buildings in the trees around the property.
Woa!
Do you know what became of the injured survivor?
I'm from Cleveland Tn. I remember this very well I was only 9yrs old but 2 of my friends lost their parents in this blast. Thank You for covering this
I'm from Cleveland too. I was born in 92 so I wasnt around for this. But it has been a great conversation topic with older folks in town since I found out about this.
Damn that's horrible...he should have stuck with raising night crawlers, seems like the ideal life to me
Ideal until he couldn't afford even that anymore
BBE: Perhaps, but your forget the ever present danger of a worm stampede. His family lived in danger whether wrangling worms or rolling 'cracker.
Charlie stole night crawlers from here...
@@KB4QAA Beautifully crafted, Pelican, the word stampede made me laugh so's Sweet Baby Jesus can hear me!
Totally missed out on naming the business "We've got worms".
"thrown the length of a football field" im sorry WHAT
AND surviving. Wtf
@@kiiingst0n They make 'em tough in Tennessee!
About 100m.
It's truly dumb luck what some people can survive, would almost certainly have died without immediate medical care, who knows what permanent injuries like paralysis, brain damage and amputations he also suffered.
WHAT, indeed. Are they talking about American football, which is 100 yards, or that other thing, which is more like 115?
Tbh he probably survived because his body wasn’t tense lol
Excellent video.... since everyone's making suggestions, I'd suggest the horrific Cairngorm school trip disaster (1971), which I don't think anyone else has done on TH-cam.
Ooo never heard of this!
Never knew about this I used the link.
I second this suggestion
Holy shit. When I studied abroad in Scotland, I went hiking in the Cairngorms all the time. Yikes, I had no idea about that...scotland will fucking kill you, man.
1989 Cormier-Village Hayride Accident in New Brunswick, Canada is also a good shout. Logging truck passing a hayride with 60+ people tipped over and crushed them all. Fucking terrifying.
"...what could have caused a blast of such magnitude on a small, unassuming fishbait farm in rural Tennessee?" As someone who grew up in Eastern Tennessee, my first thought was, "Almost anything." I remember this happening. It was a surprise to everyone who wasn't a neighbor.
I always think of meth when it comes to rural southern farms. But 1983, I assumed fertilizer. Illegal fireworks was definitely out of left field
I was like "drugs?! ... fertilizer? Moonshine!!! Oh, fireworks, ok."
The weekly profit, in today's dollars, was more than $25K.
Holy shit
The weekly death rate, in today's lives, is still the same.
Oh, I completely misunderstood that. Can see the temptation, now.
@@jdraven0890 right at first i was like $5 an hour that's nothing. oh it's 1983 that's a lot.
@@danmauller Nah. Webb made 25k, the workers made $5/hr which was less than a dollar more than the MINIMUM wage at that time.
It almost sounds like he made a deal with the devil to gain profit, and lost everything in the end.
Yeah it does. He was a desperate man and the devil swooped in and stuck out his hand....
He did.
Hmmm...true
If anyone is interested, there is a chapter in a book called "Beyond the Body Farm" by Dr. Bill Bass that discusses how the bodies (and their parts) were identified. Bass was the lead forensic anthropologist on the case and founder of the Tennessee University body farm.
I read this book years ago and it led me to read all his stuff. He even has some novels published under the name jefferson bass the we co wrote with a guy who helped him with some of his non fiction books. They were very good.
That’s fascinating. Thank you for sharing
I'm re-reading that book right now! 🤪
The Tennessee what now?
@@goldenfiberwheat238 you haven't heard of body Farms? It's where researchers study body decomposition and also new forensics students go to learn. I have one right down the road from where I live and we catch smells of it every now and then. Not pleasant
I remember this well. I was 15. I lived in the next town over. There is no way to possibly describe the magnitude of the explosion. I was about 25 miles away. The sound was LOUD. The ground shook like an earthquake. Terrifying.
damn bringing a bad name to all the good, honest worm farmers out there
Not to mention all the good, honest illegal fireworks manufacturers. It's a crying shame, it is!
Could you imagine buying a styrofoam container of live worms to go fishing, and discover a human finger or ear in it? LOL.
I imagine it would've been easy to convince someone to take part in an operation like this. Its not drugs or bootlegging liquor.
Someone might see it as just profiting off of fireworks without having to report it to the I.R.S.
Indeed. This seems like the easiest racket to lure people in.
Was anyone else thinking "Aw, shit. It Was a meth lab."
Then got the shock it was fireworks?
12/22/20 Holy crap, thanks for over 900 likes guys!
Yeah, me too. As I said before though, the size of the explosion made me think it would have had to have been a massive meth lab or not a meth lab. This explosion tore apart several buildings and killed 11 people and had a 60 foot high plume. I don't know if a meth lab could create that or not but a fireworks factory makes sense.
@@adamg7984 Good point. I have no point of reference as to the size of explosion a meth lab can create. I guess it depends on their methods, too. If Breaking Bad is anywhere near accurate, there seems to be more than one way to skin a chicken...
Everyone keeps saying meth lab, but that wasn't the think back then. Coke was king. In Tennessee, though, it would have probably been a moonshine still back then.
Yup
The disappointment on my face when it wasn't drugs😭
Damn when I read disaster at a worm farm I was thinking it was a fire/explosion caused by some weird gas buildup, like compost piles spontaneously combusting if they're not burped, but when I heard the size of the explosion I was a little taken aback imagining that being caused by just worm farts 🤣🤣🤣
That's what i thought too! Some weird gas build up.
Kirk tiny
"If they're not burped" all I can picture is someone lifting a compost pile onto their shoulder and patting it on the back like a baby lmfao
I'm an avid composter and ain't had no explosions yet. However, while fermenting kombucha, I left the fermentation going too long without burping the bottles and they exploded in my mom's living room. Thankfully nobody got hurt. Now I keep an alarm on my phone to remind me to burp my fermenting foods....
@@apassionatenerd.3564 when you turn a compost pile in cold weather, you can see/feel the warm steam come off of it. Its one of life's simplest pleasures, burping a compost pile...
This sound like a plot out of Ozark or Breaking Bad.