New London Explosion

[Ptarmigan]

In recent memories, there have been many schoolyard tragedies ranging from Beslan massacre, Virginia Tech Massacre, to Columbine Blood. This one is the worst schoolyard tragedy. New London, Texas, located in Rusk County, is the richest rural county in the nation because of oilfields throughout East Texas. This is in midst of the Great Depression grappling America. A new school is built which holds 500 students and 40 teachers. The school wanted to save money for natural gas bills, which cost $300, they tapped into natural gas straight from the field. It was odorless as a result. This peaceful and thriving town's world would shatter on March 18, 1937, which was a Thursday. A pipeline carrying natural gas was leaking inside the school. No one could smell the gas because methane is odorless. At 3:05 PM, Lemmie R. Butler, a shop class teacher, turned on the sanding machine without knowing natural gas is leaking. The spark from the switch ignited the gas. A huge explosions happens and it levels the school. The explosion could be heard miles away. The explosion leveled the school. 130 people escaped without injury. Sadly, 300 to 400 people died in the explosion. It is one of Texas's worst disaster besides 1900 Galveston hurricane and 1947 Texas City Explosion. Some people believe it was sabotage. In 1961, William Benson claimed he sabotaged the pipeline as retribution for being reprimanded for smoking. He wanted to run up their natural gas bills. The explosion bought flurries of lawsuits because no one was held responsible and was deemed an accident. The disaster killed so many children, it sent shockwaves througout the world. Even Adolf Hitler sent condolences to New London. It remains the worst schoolyard disaster in American and easily world history history. Natural gas has Mercaptan, which gives that foul odor on purpose, so people can smell it to save lives. The odor was added as a result of this horrible tragedy, which is law today. The disaster is sadly overlooked in part because the people of New London do not discuss about it and also the Hindenburg explosion happened two months later. The school was rebuilt and opened in 1939 with a memorial to the victims of the explosion.

Texas Scape-New London School Explosion
New London Texas School Explosion March 18, 1937
Wikipedia-New London School Explosion
Handbook of Texas Online

[HarlequinBoy]

That's horrifying!! I'd never even heard about that until I read your post. =\

[wxmann_91]

You know you history Ptarmigan. Thanks for sharing these little tidbits, very sad story.