New London School explosion

1937 newsreel

The New London School explosion occurred on March 18, 1937, when a natural gas leak caused an explosion, destroying the London School of New London, Texas,^[1] a community in Rusk County previously known as "London". The disaster killed more than 295 students and teachers, making it the worst catastrophe to take place in a U.S. school building.

Background

In the mid-1930s, the Great Depression was in full swing, but the London school district was one of the richest in America. A 1930 oil find in Rusk County had boosted the local economy, and educational spending grew with it. The London School, a large structure of steel and concrete, was constructed in 1932 at a cost of $1 million (approx $15.75 million in 2009 dollars). The London Wildcats (a play on the term "wildcatter", for an oil prospector) played football in the first stadium in the state to have electric lights.

London School before the explosion

The school was built on sloping ground, and a large dead-air space was contained beneath the structure. The school board had overridden the original architect's plans for a boiler and steam distribution system, instead opting to install 72 gas heaters throughout the building.^[2]

Early in 1937, the school board canceled their natural gas contract and had plumbers install a tap into Parade Gasoline Company's residue gas line in order to save money. This practice, while not explicitly authorized by local oil companies, was widespread in the area. The natural gas extracted with the oil was seen as a waste product and was flared off. As there was no value to the natural gas, the oil companies turned a blind eye. This "raw" or "wet" gas varied in quality from day to day, even from hour to hour.^[3]

Untreated natural gas is both odorless and colorless, so leaks are undetectable. Gas had been leaking from the residue line tap, and built up inside an enclosed crawlspace that ran the entire 253-foot (77 m) length of the building's facade. Students had been complaining of headaches for some time, but little attention had been paid to it.^[4]

Friday's classes had been canceled to allow for students to participate in the neighboring city of Henderson's Interscholastic Meet, a scholastic and athletic competition. Following the school's normal schedule, first through fourth grade students had been let out early. A PTA meeting was being held in the gymnasium, a separate structure roughly 100 feet (30 m) from the main building.

Explosion

At some time between 3:05 and 3:20PM Central (local) time, Lemmie R. Butler (an "instructor of manual training") turned on an electric sander. It is believed that the sander's switch caused a spark that ignited the gas-air mixture.

The remains of the London School after the explosion of March 18, 1937

Reports from witnesses state that the walls of the school bulged, the roof lifted from the building, and then crashed back down and the main wing of the structure collapsed. The force of the explosion was so great that a two-ton concrete block was thrown clear of the building and crushed a 1936 Chevrolet parked nearby.^[5]

Estimates of the number dead vary from 296 to 319, but that number could be much higher, as many of the residents of New London at the time were transient oilfield workers, and there is no way to determine for certain how many of these roughnecks collected the bodies of their children in the days following the disaster, and returned them to their respective homes for burial. Approximately 600 students and 40 teachers were in the building at the time; only about 130 escaped without serious injury.

Reaction

The explosion was its own alarm, heard for miles. The most immediate response was from parents at the PTA meeting. Within minutes, area residents started to arrive and began digging through the rubble, many with their bare hands. Roughnecks from the oil fields were released from their jobs, and brought with them cutting torches and heavy equipment needed to clear the concrete and steel.

London School bus driver Lonnie Barber was transporting elementary students to their homes, and was in sight of the school as it exploded. Barber continued his two hour route, returning children to their parents before rushing back to the school to look for his four children. His son Arden died, but the others were not seriously injured.^[6] Barber retired the next year.

Aid poured in from outside the area. Governor James Allred dispatched Texas Rangers, highway patrol, and the Texas National Guard. Thirty doctors, 100 nurses, and 25 embalmers arrived from Dallas. Airmen from Barksdale Field, deputy sheriffs, and even Boy Scouts took part in the rescue and recovery.

Most of the bodies were either burned beyond recognition, or blown to pieces. One mother had a heart attack and died when she found out that her daughter died, with only part of her face, her chin and a couple of bones recovered. Another boy was identified by the presence of the pull string from his favorite top in his jeans pocket.

Rescuers worked through night and rain, and 17 hours later, the entire site had been cleared. Buildings in the neighboring communities of Henderson, Overton, Kilgore and as far away as Tyler and Longview were converted into makeshift morgues to house the enormous number of bodies, and everything from family cars to delivery trucks served as hearses and ambulances.

Mother Frances Hospital in nearby Tyler was scheduled to open the next day, but the dedication was canceled and the hospital opened immediately.^[7]

Reporters arrived in the city, but found themselves swept up in the rescue effort. Former Dallas Times Herald executive editor Felix McKnight, then a young AP reporter, recalled, "We identified ourselves and were immediately told that helpers were needed far more than reporters." Walter Cronkite also found himself in New London, on one of his first assignments for United Press. Although Cronkite went on to cover World War II and the Nuremberg trials, he was quoted as saying decades later, "I did nothing in my studies nor 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."^[8]

Not all of the buildings on the 10-acre (40,000 m²) campus were destroyed. One of the surviving buildings, the gymnasium, was quickly converted into multiple classrooms. Inside new tents and the modified buildings, classes resumed 10 days later.

According to the History Channel's Modern Marvels series, Adolf Hitler, who was at the time the German Chancellor, paid his respects in the form of a telegram (a copy of which is on display at the London Museum).

Aftermath

A new school was completed in 1939 on the property, directly behind the location of the destroyed building. The school remained known as the London School until 1965 when London ISD consolidated with Gaston ISD, the name was changed to West Rusk High School, and the mascot was changed to the Raiders. A large granite cenotaph on the median of Texas State Highway 42 across from the new school commemorates the 1937 disaster. The London Museum and Tea House is across the highway, and its curator Mollie Ward is an explosion survivor.

The majority of the victims of the explosion are buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery, near New London.

The top of the London School cenotaph by sculptor Matchett Herring Coe

Experts from the United States Bureau of Mines concluded that the connection to the residue gas line was faulty. The connection had allowed gas to leak into the school, and since natural gas is invisible and is odorless, the leak was unnoticed. To reduce the damage of future leaks, the Texas Legislature began mandating within weeks of the explosion that thiols (mercaptans) be added to natural gas.^[1] The strong odor of many thiols makes leaks quickly detectable. The practice quickly spread worldwide.

Shortly after the disaster, the Texas Legislature met in emergency session and enacted the Engineering Registration Act (now rewritten as the Texas Engineering Practice Act). Public pressure was on the government to regulate the practice of engineering due to the faulty installation of the natural gas connection; Carolyn Jones, a nine year old survivor, spoke to the Texas Legislature about the importance of safety in schools.^[9] The use of the title "engineer" in Texas remains legally restricted to those who have been professionally certified by the state to practice engineering.^[9]

A lawsuit was brought against the school district and the Parade Gasoline Company, but the court ruled that neither could be held responsible. Superintendent W.C. Shaw was forced to resign amid talk of a lynching. Shaw lost a son in the explosion.

Over the years, the New London School explosion received relatively little attention given the magnitude of the event. Explanations for this are speculative, but most center around residents' unwillingness to discuss the tragedy. L.V. Barber said of his father Lonnie, "I can remember newspaper people coming around every now and then, asking him questions about that day, but he never had much to say." The tragic events have been recalled through a play written by Dr. Bobby Johnson, called A Texas Tragedy; performed as a one act play by the students at Huntington High School in Huntington, Texas. The 50-year anniversary of the event was commemorated in part by the release of a documentary, "The Day A Generation Died," written, produced, and directed by Jerry Gumbert.^[10]

In 2000, the New York publishing house Alfred A. Knopf signed the journalist Sara Mosle to write the definitive, non-fiction, historical account of the tragedy.^[11] Sara Mosle, a native of Texas and previously an editor and writer at The New York Times Book Review,^[12] a staff writer at The New Yorker^[13] and a frequent contributor to Slate.com,^[14] has often written about Texas subjects,^[15] public schools and education,^[16] and the inner lives of children.^[17] The book, which is based on more than 100 interviews with people directly connected to the explosion and extensive archival research, is forthcoming from Knopf. It describes the years leading up to the tragedy, including the discovery of the East Texas oil field (where Sara Mosle's grandfather worked on the rigs and her mother grew up), reporters such as Walter Cronkite and the Dallas journalist and editor Felix McKnight (whom Sara Mosle interviewed before both men died), and the years after the explosion, when survivors slowly came to terms with the tragedy.

In 2008, some of the last living survivors of the explosion shared their personal stories of their experience with documentary filmmaker and East Texas native, Kristin Beauchamp. The feature length documentary, titled "When Even Angels Wept," was released in 2009 and was a first-hand account of the disaster. It is told almost exclusively by survivors and eye witnesses. They share what they experienced on the afternoon leading up to the blast to what it was like to spend days searching East Texas towns, hospitals and morgues for missing loved ones.

As of 2009^[update], the New London School Explosion stands as the deadliest school disaster in American history and the third deadliest disaster in the history of Texas, after the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, and the 1947 Texas City Disaster.

See also

Texas portal

• Category:School fires
  • Our Lady of the Angels School Fire
  • Collinwood School Fire
• Bath School Disaster

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Texas State Historical Commission. "New London School Explosion". StoppingPoints.com. http://www.stoppingpoints.com/texas/sights.cgi?marker=New+London+School+Explosion&cnty=rusk. 
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ Cornell, James C. (1982), The Great International Disaster Book (3rd ed.), Charles Scribner's Sons.
4. ^ Robertson, William
5. ^ New London School Disaster Explosion
6. ^ David Estes Family
7. ^ http://www.tmfhs.org/history.php
8. ^ Cronkite, Walter
9. ^ ^{a b} Texas Board of Professional Engineers: An Inventory of Board of Professional Engineers Records at the Texas State Archives, 1937, 1952, 1972-2001, 2005-2006, undated
10. ^ List of Documentaries about the Tragedy
11. ^ http://www.dallasobserver.com/2002-02-21/news/today-a-generation-died/4/
12. ^ The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/reviews/980517.17moslet.html. 
13. ^ http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/09/18/1995_09_18_052_TNY_CARDS_000374014
14. ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2198864/
15. ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2189688/
16. ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2214253/
17. ^ Mosle, Sara (July 2, 2000). "The Vanity of Volunteerism". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/02/magazine/the-vanity-of-volunteerism.html. 

References

• "Today, a generation died.", Carlton Stowers. Dallas Observer
• New London School Explosion from the Handbook of Texas Online

External links

• New London School Explosion
• Original New London School Explosion webpage www.nlse.org
• The London Museum
• Photo gallery of London Museum exhibits -- Tyler Morning Telegraph
• A Generation Remembers -- Longview News-Journal
• Longview News-Journal memorial coverage
• The disaster scene at New London, March 18, 1937
• 'Explosion Remembered'^{[dead link]} (KYTX/19 Eye on Education report, March 16, 2007)
• 'New London Holds Explosion Reunion' (KLTV/7 report, March 18, 2007)
• The New London School Disaster website by Robert Hilliard
• Photos of the New London School explosion^{[dead link]}, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• Recollections by Howard Coleman of the New London School Explosion
• Reflections on a Tragedy -- Tyler Morning Telegraph
• '70th Anniversary of New London School Explosion' (KETK/56 report, March 18, 2007)
• 'Survivors remember New London school explosion' (KETK/56 report, March 18, 2007)
• The Texas Rangers and the New London, Texas, School Disaster
• Texas Bob's New London, Texas - School Disaster Page
• Universal Newsreel footage 'special release'
• History of the event from a museum near the site
• "When Even Angels Wept" Trailer
• KHOU TV retrospective
• "Lost Generation (The New London Song)," folk song by JamisonPriest.

Coordinates: 32°14′21″N 94°56′29″W / 32.23917°N 94.94139°W / 32.23917; -94.94139