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| Those Who Died |
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Eleven Kingman firefighters and a gas-company worker died, more than 100 other people were injured, buildings were flattened and fires broke out everywhere. Dying firefighters whispered last words to wives, who would soon be widows, and children, who would grow up without fathers.
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| William L. Casson |
Age 52, volunteer fire captain (former fire chief), 27-year veteran fireman, regional manager for Citizens' Utilities Co., a director of the Kingman Chamber of Commerce, and a 31-year member of the Elks |
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| Myron B. (Jimmy) Cox |
Age 55, assistant fire chief, 22-year veteran fireman, driver for Kingman Bake Shop, a member of the city planning and zoning commission, piano player, and a long-time member of the Elks |
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| Roger A. Hubka |
Age 27, volunteer fireman, service manager for Double G Tire Co. (one of the companies that was totally destroyed), and a Pop Warner football coach |
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| Joseph M. Chambers III |
Age 37, 16-year veteran volunteer lieutenant fireman, a member of the Elks, and one of the organizers of Kingman's original Jaycees chapter |
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| Marvin E. Mast |
Age 42, manager of Doxol Gas Co., Korean War veteran, and member of a Moose Lodge in Illinois where he lived up to 1972 |
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| Arthur C. Stringer |
Age 25, Vietnam veteran and member of the Arizona national Guard, and a volunteer fireman for one month. His father, also a volunteer fireman, was seriously burned. |
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| Christopher G. Sanders |
Age 38, certified first aid instructor, and executive director of Mohave Big Brothers. H had loaded others into an ambulance before evacuating himself from the scene and helped a newspaper reporter drive the vehicle to the hospital with victims burnt less severely then he was. |
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| Richard Lee Williams |
Age 47, volunteer fireman and principal of the Kingman High School since 1959, coach there 1949-1955, member of the Elks and American Legion and a Rotarian. |
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| Frank S. (Butch) Henry |
Age 28, 7-year volunteer fireman and manager of ICX truck lines. |
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| John O. Campbell |
Age 41, volunteer fireman, head of the Kingman Water Department, assistant city works director. He was also a Little League manager who died on the eve of the opening of a Little League tournament. |
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| Donald G. Webb |
Age 38, volunteer fireman, gas station owner, Elks official and Rotarian |
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| Alan Hansen |
Age 34, Arizona highway patrolman and a fireman, suffered burns over 50 percent of his body trying to help an unconscious fireman. |
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| Ninety-nine others, most of them spectators who had gathered along Highway 66, were injured by the explosion. It was a sad day in Kingman, AZ.
Firefighters from all over the world have used the Kingman event as a case study. Fire experts call that type of incident a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion, or BLEVE. Firefighters make pilgrimages to Kingman to see the site of the explosion and hear the breakdown of what happened.
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| The 'Largest firefighter disaster in Arizona's history' is now memorialized at the park. |
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