Today in History: Natural gas explosion kills nearly 300 at Texas school
The area was dominated by 10 000 oil derricks, 11 of which stood right on school grounds.
On this day in 1937, nearly 300 students in Texas were killed by an explosion of natural gas at their school.
The Consolidated School of New London, Texas, sat in the middle of a large oil and natural gas field. The school was newly built in the 1930s for close to $1 million and, from its inception, bought natural gas from Union Gas to supply its energy needs.
The school’s natural gas bill averaged about $300 a month. Eventually, officials at Consolidated School were persuaded to save money by tapping into the wet-gas lines operated by Parade Oil Company that ran near the school. Wet gas is a type of waste gas that is less stable and has more impurities than typical natural gas. At the time, it was not uncommon for consumers living near oil fields to use this gas.
At 3.05pm on 18 March, a Thursday afternoon, the 694 students and 40 teachers in attendance at the Consolidated School were looking forward to the final bell, which was to ring in 10 minutes. Instead, a huge and powerful explosion, which literally blew the roof off the building, levelled the school.
The blast was felt by people 64km away and killed most victims instantly. People rushed to the scene to pull out survivors; hundreds of injured students were hauled from the rubble. Miraculously, some students walked away unharmed; 10 of these were found under a large bookcase that shielded them from the falling building.
First-aid stations were established in the nearby towns of Tyler, Overton, Kilgore and Henderson to tend to the wounded. Reportedly, a blackboard at the destroyed school was found that read, “Oil and natural gas are East Texas’ greatest natural gifts. Without them, this school would not be here and none of us would be learning our lessons”.
The exact cause of the spark that ignited the gas was never found, although it is now known that the gas could have been ignited by static electricity. As a result of this incident, wet gas was required to be burned at the site rather than piped away.
Information courtesy of: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/natural-gas-explosion-kills-schoolchildren-in-texas.
