Dear Arranroots,
Re the Silvertown explosion, dreadful as it obviously was, it should perhaps be remembered that the factory was Brunner Mondes, making shells, bombs etc., Silvertown as has quite rightly already been noted, was a densely populated area, full of housing, docks, paint factories, soap factories etc, so what might have been a relatively small incident, couldn't have happened in a worse place, and I suppose 73 dead could have so easily been 173 dead.
Bob Lovett