TITLE

MARCH 18, 1937

AUTHOR(S)

Stone, Ron

PUB. DATE

January 1984

SOURCE

Book of Texas Days;1984, p45

SOURCE TYPE

Book

DOC. TYPE

Book

ABSTRACT

This is part of The Book of Texas Days, 1984, which chronicles important events and persons in the history of Texas. The oil boom of the 1930s brought thousands of people to east Texas. Little towns became bustling cities; schools strained to care for all the new students. At New London, a brand new school building stood glistening in the sun on the morning of March 18, 1937. The school had recently changed from commercial to raw natural gas from the fields nearby. That gas started to accumulate from a leaking pipe under the building. No one knows how long it had been leaking when a spark from electrical equipment in the shop set it off, and in one mighty, earsplitting blast, the New London school blew up. The roof sailed into the air, then fell back on what was left of the building. When the rubble had finally been cleared away, workers recovered the bodies of 280 students and 14 teachers. It still ranks as the worst school disaster in the nation's history.

ACCESSION #

21474603

Tags: DISASTERS;  TEXAS -- History;  SCHOOL buildings;  CURIOSITIES & wonders;  ACCIDENTS

 

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