The Roanoker - July/August 2018 - 19

A

T 6:47PM ON SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1946, the
Junior Grocery in downtown Roanoke exploded.
The one-story brick structure was reduced to
rubble, with two people trapped inside. The windows on the
west side of Lee Junior High School were blown from their
frames. The plate glass from the display windows of the
grocery flew like shrapnel across Franklin Road, piercing
cars and people. The east and south walls of the adjacent
Mayfair Art and Gift Shop collapsed. The south end of
Moore Radio Shop was gone. At the Larry Dow Pontiac
dealership and Pitzer Transfer nearby, walls were cracked
and windows shattered. The 200 block of Franklin Road
was complete devastation.
As police and firefighters raced to the surreal scene,
people lay stunned and bleeding on sidewalks and beside
parked cars. Junior Grocery's assistant manager Louise
Aesy and customer Lucille Burchett were pinned in
the debris. Aesy had suffered back fractures and severe
lacerations to her left arm. Burchett sustained
internal injuries and was unconscious, having
been sent airborne across an aisle. As the
women were pulled from the rubble and
rushed to nearby Lewis-Gale Hospital,
three others would soon join them.
R.C. Ratcliff had been in front of
the store just prior to the explosion
and flying glass had lacerated his
arms, legs and chest. Mrs. Tinsley
Morris had exited the store just
minutes before and suffered the same
fate, and passerby H.J. Deese felt searing
heat course up his back seconds after hearing
what he believed was a series of bombs detonating.
All would survive.
Those on the outskirts of downtown believed they had
heard dynamite in connection with the construction of the
Bank of Virginia building. Days prior, the contractor had
been excavating for the foundation and had used small
explosives to create a cavity for the basement.
Roanoke Fire Chief W.M. Mullins, along with police,
began interviewing witnesses and victims. All reported
similar descriptions to that given by Deese that bombs
had exploded. Within a few hours, Mullins formed an
initial conclusion as to the cause of the disaster - fireworks.
Several days before the Fourth of July, Junior Grocery's
owners had stockpiled a large inventory and created a mass
display of the pyrotechnic gadgets in their front window.
It was quite a collection. According to Emmett Aesy, the
grocery's proprietor, the display contained 3,465 small
torpedo bombs, 720 two-shot repeater tornadoes, and 432
aerial bombs of various types. The payload had ignited
taking much of the block with it.
Word spread quickly about the catastrophe. Soon,
hundreds of motorists began slowly driving by on adjacent
streets, while others found the doors of Lee Junior High
unlocked and went inside to peer down upon the wreckage
from the blown out windows.

TheRoanoker.com

The explosion made headlines in newspapers along the
East Coast.
With witness statements and interviews, police believed
they had determined the source of the ignition. Ironically,
it was one of the victims, Richard Ratcliff. Roanoke
police superintendent Major James Ingoldsby shared
with reporters the following day that a charge of malicious
wounding had been brought against the 40-year-old
Vinton resident. According to Ingoldsby, Ratcliff had lit a
match and stuck it through a crack in the display window.
Ingoldsby had sent samples of the fireworks to the labs
at the Viscose plant and the Radford Ordnance Works
for analysis that later revealed some of the fireworks were
laced with TNT.
Two days after the explosion, Roanoke City Council
adopted an emergency ordinance submitted by Ingoldsby
that fireworks be banned in the city. The ordinance,
unanimously approved, prohibited the sale, possession,
and shooting of fireworks of all kinds except by
professionals associated with fairs and other
entertainment, and that only by permit.
Punishment for violating the ordinance
was set at $500 and a possible six
months in jail. Prior to this action,
fireworks had been loosely regulated
by the city with a $10 fee to sell
them. Beginning in the early 1930s,
the city had set periods for when
fireworks could be used, namely on
New Year's Eve, the Fourth of July, and
Christmas Eve and Day. Such regulations
had been a response to concerns about noise,
not safety.
Mayor Leo Henebry strongly urged in his public
comments that surrounding jurisdictions adopt the same
ban. Most did. Roanoke County adopted a fireworks ban
two months later to take effect in mid-September. The ban
came too late, however, for three boys in the Cave Spring
section who received severe burns on their hands and arms
from fireworks the day before the Fourth.
A few days after the explosion, Ratcliff was released
from Lewis-Gale Hospital and went home, having posted
a $1,000 bond. The suspect was adamant he had done
nothing to ignite the display pile. Yet, witnesses reported
seeing Ratcliff pressed against the grocery's plate glass
window, hands cupped, with a small amount of smoke
emanating from his fingers. Ratcliff 's initial trial date was
postponed due to Louise Aesy, a key witness, still being
hospitalized and unable to make a court appearance. As
police interviewed other witnesses, however, certainty
surrounding the actions of Ratcliff and solid proof for
him causing the explosion began to become murky.
Weeks dragged on before Ratcliff 's trial could start, and
investigators altered the charge from malicious wounding
to destruction of property. Even at that, the judge in the
case eventually decided to take the case under advisement,
effectively relieving Ratcliff of any consequences. I
JULY/AUGUST 2018

19
http://www.TheRoanoker.com
The Roanoker - July/August 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - July/August 2018
