New London School Disaster Worst Ever in US

1937 Texas Gas Explosion Wiped Out Next Generation in Boom Town

Jun 24, 2009

The brand new school in the Piney Woods of east Texas was a million dollar showplace, until an errant spark reduced its grandeur to a bombed out, body-strewn war zone.

The ill-fated school replaced a four-room, four-teacher school house and featured a campus of detached buildings on several acres, with state-of-the-art facilities. Its lighted football stadium, first in the state, introduced Friday Night Lights to Texas.

The school was the pride of New London, Texas, on a campus built with royalties from the oil boom in Kilgore and environs in the 1930s. That luster was blown away on March 18, 1937, at three in the afternoon, when a horrendous natural gas explosion demolished the school and wiped out nearly a generation of the town’s children.

Some Students Were Lucky on That Fateful Day

During school hours, approximately 740 students and teachers occupied the "E" shaped main building, comprised of the junior-senior high school in the large section and elementary grades in the wings.

When the blast occurred, most of the grammar school had just been dismissed and were heading home, while about 540 high school and junior high students and teachers remained. Those star-crossed students were due to leave in seven minutes, but then the explosion occurred and they never got the chance.

Some luckier ones were away. According to survivors' emails posted to "Robert Hilliard's Website of the World," the football team had just finished practice and were on their way to the dressing rooms, when the coach sent Raymond Vickers back to the field for the equipment, out of intense blast range; others went to a sports competition; and 13-year old Scotty Vickers, Raymond's brother, played hooky that fateful day.

Eyewitnesses Watched in Horror

The blast was so powerful a two-ton slab of hurtling concrete mashed a pickup truck parked 200 feet away like a peanut shell. Fifty cars were smashed in the parking lot, by flying cement, bricks and other debris.

Eye witnesses said the explosion caused the walls to bulge and roof to rise several feet, before collapsing like a leaden circus tent through the floor to the basement, crushing everyone and everything as it plummeted. Then the tottering walls of the main section caved in to complete the horror.

Explosion Took High Tolls in Deaths and Injuries

In the tangled wreckage, 298 students and teachers were killed instantly and 112 were critically injured, according to Handbook of Texas Online. Casualty numbers vary, with the death rate as high as 325 in a few cases. It is likely some of the injured died and were added later, accounting for the discrepancies.Veteran newsman,

Walter Cronkite, then a cub reporter for United Press International in Dallas, covered the story. Years later, he would say, "I did nothing in my studies or in my life to prepare me for a story of the magnitude of that New London tragedy, nor has any story since that awful day equaled it."

Red Cross Worker on Scene Remembers the Pathos

An American Red Cross representative, on the scene, later wrote: "Mothers sifted through the debris desperately for some proof of the identity of their children. They picked up and carried tiny scraps of gingham or corduroy, or whatever charred swatches matched what they remembered their little ones had left home wearing. Screams of recognition filled the air."

What Investigation of the Cause Revealed

A very cruel irony materialized, when the cause was discovered. The wealthy school's gas bill for heating was running up to $300 a month. School officials decided to save that money, and switched to the use of free wellhead waste gas, by hooking up to a flared or waste gas pipe, at a wellhead on the grounds.

Each school classroom had its own gas heater. But in their eagerness to save money, school officials did not have the connections done properly. Instead, the school janitor made the connections. He made no provision for regulating gas flow.

Why Was So Much Dangerous Gas Not Detected

During the night preceding the explosion, gas pressure apparently increased to such intensity that it filled a large enclosed area in the school basement. Having no odor, the gas went undetected. In another part of the basement, a shop instructor turned on an electric sander the next afternoon and a spark ignited the gas.

There were 80 law suits filed, but no legal action was taken. However, the school superintendent, who lost two children in the disaster, was dismissed.

Explosion That Was Heard Round the World

When the rumbling explosion went off, the ground shook for miles around. It shook in other places too, as politicians in state houses all over the world felt the public groundswell to pass regulations for safer use of natural gas. The event was truly the explosion heard round the world.

Soon laws for the mandatory injection of the malordorous chemical Mercaptan, to warn potential victims of accumulations, followed the tragedy; as well as requirements for gauges and control valves to be installed by licensed personnel.

After the horrific calamity, there was no longer a shine in New London. The sign at the edge of town in boxcar type explained why: WE LOVE OUR CHILDREN.

The copyright of the article New London School Disaster Worst Ever in US in Modern US History is owned by Howard Bryan Bonham. Permission to republish New London School Disaster Worst Ever in US in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.