Feb. 10, 1973, a chilly Saturday afternoon, a flash fire erupted in the cavernous interior of a smaller LNG tank in Bloomfield. Natural gas trapped inside fueled the fire and created a force that ripped the concrete dome from its anchors and sent it crashing onto workers more than 100 feet below. Forty men were killed. The incident stands as the borough's worst industrial accident ever.

Smoke Billows from the Bloomfield LNG tank tanks after a fire broke out. (Staten Island Advance/Barry Schwarz)

The 600,000-barrel tank in Bloomfield was being repaired when a fire broke out. Natural gas trapped inside the tank fueled the fire and led to the explosion.

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Firefighters work to remove the bodies of the people killed during the LNG tank explosion in Bloomfield in 1973. (Staten Island Advance/Robert Parsons)

Eyewitnesses told the Advance in 1973 that there was hissing sound and a loud noise -- followed by a ring of flame outside the 108-foot-high tank, located near the waterfront about a mile south of the Goethals Bridge.

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New York-Recovering The Dead-Firemen at left carries pine coffin box which was lowered by crane onto surface of sunken chemical storage roof where bodies of 40 workers are being retrieved from beneath the surface and placed into the coffins. (Associated Press)

It was part of the huge tract of land purchased by NASCAR in 2004. The site is not accessible to the public. The tank site was formally demolished in 1993

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A firefighter climbs up a ramp littered with debris - insulation, sheet metal and concrete. (Staten Island Advance/Barry Schwartz)

Outside of the lives of the 40 workers killed, the blast has a lasting legacy on Staten Island: It ultimately brought to a halt the construction of two larger LNG tanks in the Rossville section of Staten Island.

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The interior of the shattered liquified natural gas tank in Bloomfield that exploded killing 40 people. (Staten Island Advance)

The tanks still stand off Arthur Kills road. They have been decommissioned and have been deteriorating for decades.

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Staten Island Advance/Tony Carannante

A pipeline which was located on top of the tank lies mangled on the ground after being blown off in the blast.

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Staten Island Advance/Tony Carannante

Waiting to find out: Mrs. Anthony Mezzacappa, at left, talks to a policeman about her missing husband, while, at right, Mary Hogan shows her tears over a missing brother (another brother was rescued).

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Associated Press

New York-Grim Work-Firemen are lowered into a Staten Island, New York gas storage tank Sunday as the search continues for victims of an explosion and fire in which authorities said 40 men were feared dead. The blast occurred Saturday afternoon, leaving tons of smoldering debris from the roof of the cone-shaped structure.

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Staten Island Advance/Robert Parsons

Firemen carry a pine box containing the remains of another victim of the explosion through rubble littering the tank floor.

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Staten Island Advance/Tony Carannante

The explosion threw wreckage hundreds of feet in the air and away from the site Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation.

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Staten Island Advance/Robert Parsons

Pipes, once on roof of the tank, were bent out of shape as the dome collapsed.

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Associated Press

New York City Firemen and emergency worker remove a coffin, Sunday, from the lift which is carrying bodies from inside of gas storage tank which exploded Saturday in Staten Island, New York. Some 40 workers are feared dead.

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Staten Island Advance/Frank J. Johns

This photo shows two bodies being lowered in the aftermath of the 1973 explosion of a liquefied natural gas tank in Bloomfield.

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Staten Island Advance/Steve Zaffarano

Texas Eastern LNG tanks in Bloomfield, circa 1980's.

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Staten Island Advance/Frank J. Johns

Jean Auture comforts Natalina Fava during the memorial service for the victims of the Tetco explosion. Both women lost their husbands in the blast.

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Staten Island Advance/Tony Carannante

The debris of the explosion, including pipes and supporting beams, forms an eerie tableau with icicles as sub-freezing temperatures continue at the site of the Bloomfield catastrophe.

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Staten Island Advance/Frank J. Johns

Made widows by the Bloomfield tank explosion, Mrs. Dina Dire, left, Mrs. Anntoinetta Rubino, center, and Mrs Natalina Faua weep during memorial services.

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Staten Island Advance

The arrow marks the site of the LNG tank blast of February 1973, in Bloomfield. A memorial service is held nearby four years later.

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Staten Island Advance

Before the explosion, Texas Eastern Transmission Corporation boasted about being "fanatical about safety" This is how the Bloomfield tanks looked . . . until the disaster of 1973 changed the picture.

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Staten Island Advance/Robert Parsons

"I ran straight down the side of the tank and when I heard the blast, I kept telling myself, 'O God, you're dead,'" John Carroll calmly explained last night as he sat in a wheelchair in St. Vincent Medical Center. Luck had apparently been with the 31-year-old Carroll as he bolted from his work station on the cement roof of the world's largest gas storage tank, ran down the side of its earthen embankment and dropped to the ground as an explosion ripped through the eight-story-high tank, taking the lives of 40 workers, including Carroll's younger brother.

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Staten Island Advance/Robert Parsons

Firefighters use air hammers to break through the Texas Eastern gas tank's reinforced concrete roof during the search and rescue operation following the explosion.

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Staten Island Advance/Frank J. Johns

Virginia Buonriaggio reads the names of those killed in the explosion as Paul Capotosta, right, of the Richmond Cadets, plays taps.

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Staten Island Advance/Frank J. Johns

Memorial service in church after LNG tank explosion Staten Island Advance

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Staten Island Advance

The Staten Island Advance front page Feb. 11, 1973.