On the 18th of March, 1937, students at the New London School in Texas were attending
their final lessons of the day, when a massive explosion ripped through the school.
This explosion would devastate the local community, but would also lead to widespread changes
which remain in place to this day.
The New London School explosion would go down in history as the worst disaster ever to strike
a school in the United States of America.
The city of New London is located in the Rusk County area of Texas.
The settlement was established in 1855 when a post office was built to help serve the
expanding southern frontier.
Throughout its early history, New London relied on agriculture, but this changed in 1930 when
oil was discovered in the East Texas Oilfield.
Overnight, New London became a boomtown.
While the rest of America was mired in the Great Depression, New London was becoming
increasingly wealthy.
A new school was built in 1932 for around $1 million, with further additions two years
later.
It was a lavish high school with an elementary school attached, as well as a gymnasium and
a football field which was the first field with electric lights in East Texas.
It was built in a California-Spanish style, with a red tiled roof, and two storeys on
the main E-shaped building.
It was a beautiful, modern school for a wealthy city.
There was a debate between the architects and the school board, however, about which
heating system they should use.
The architects suggested that there should be a boiler and steam system, but the school
board opted instead for 72 individual gas-powered heaters to be installed throughout the school.
This kind of heater was in use all over America at the time, and wasn’t seen as at all unusual
or dangerous.
As the school was built on sloping ground, there was a large air space underneath the
structure, which is where the gas pipes would be plumbed in.
By 1937, the school was looking for ways to save money.
They were spending around $300 (equivalent to around $5,000 in the year 2020) per month
on gas from the United Gas Company.
So they decided to do something that was common practice in the area at the time and plumb
into the residue gas line of the Parade Gasoline Company.
Parade Gasoline was in the business of extracting oil.
Doing so often resulted in natural gas being extracted as well, but this low-quality gas
was considered a waste product and was usually burned off.
As a result, the company would turn a blind eye to anyone syphoning off their residue
gas.
This residue natural gas, which was colourless and odourless, was delivered to each room
through a four centimetre (or one-and-a-half inch) pipe, which connected to a five centimetre
(or two inch) pipe in the basement of the building.
On the 18th of March, 1937, a Parent Teacher Association meeting was being held in the
school gymnasium - a separate building around thirty metres (or 100 feet) from the main
school.
The elementary school children had been dismissed at 3:00pm, and were making their way home
or waiting for parents who were attending the meeting.
High school classes were due to be dismissed at 3:30pm.
Around 500 students and 40 teachers were in the main building of the school.
Throughout the day several students had reported experiencing headaches, but other than that,
it was a day like any other.
Nobody present at the school was aware that a leak in the gas piping had, for several
hours, been allowing gas to accumulate in the basement and lower floors of the school.
At approximately 3:17pm, Limmie Butler, a wood shop instructor, began using an eclectic
sander which, due to its unreliable condition, had been given the nickname “old sparky”.
Mr Butler had recently repaired the sander so that it was ready to use again.
As he switched on the machine, a spark was generated.
This spark ignited the accumulated gas and the flame was carried below the floorboards,
into a void space completely filled with gas.
Instantly, there was a huge explosion, which was heard up to six and a half kilometres
(or four miles) away.
Eyewitnesses describe the whole building bulging and rising into the air before crashing back
down to the ground.
The walls collapsed and the roof caved in.
A massive concrete block was thrown from the building and landed on a car sixty metres
(or 200 feet) away.
The air was filled with debris from the blast.
Black smoke and red clay dust created a spiralling cloud in the air.
The parents from the PTA meeting were the first on scene.
Students that had been able to evacuate the building were suffering from shock - unsure
what had happened or what they should be doing.
Firefighters soon arrived, but as there was no fire, they joined the search for survivors
amongst the rubble.
Soon, they were joined by workers from the oil fields in the surrounding area who had
witnessed the blast, many of whom had children at the school.
The Governor of Texas dispatched Texas Rangers, the Highway Patrol and the National Guard
to the scene to aid the rescue attempts, and to help control the anxious crowds that were
gathering at the scene.
Medical aid arrived from Dallas: 100 nurses, 30 doctors and 25 embalmers, who worked in
makeshift field hospitals in the buildings around the school.
There was no hospital in New London, but a hospital was due to open the following day
in nearby Tyler, so this facility started accepting the victims.
100 children were taken there, but there were only 60 beds.
Rubble was initially moved by hand or using a shipment of peach baskets that were delivered
to the scene.
Later, heavy machinery and floodlights from the oilfields were delivered.
When two news reporters were sent to the scene to report on the blast they were told “that
helpers were needed far more than reporters”, and so they joined in the rescue effort.
The school principal, Troy Duran, was responsible for identifying the dead before they were
taken to temporary morgues - one of which was at a nearby ice rink.
School bus driver Lonnie Barber was taking elementary students back home when he heard
the blast.
He nonetheless completed his route, reuniting children with their worried parents, before
returning to look for his own four children at the site of the explosion.
Tragically, his son Arden had not survived.
After 17 hours of searching, all of the victims had been recovered, with each individual basket
of rubble painstakingly searched for body parts before it was removed from the site.
Even after all of the bodies had been recovered, there was a heightened state of panic and
confusion.
Parents fought over the bodies, desperate to discover what had happened to their children.
Victims were frequently misidentified.
One student, WG Watson, recalled hearing his own name listed as one of the dead on the
radio.
294 people, students and teachers, were killed in the explosion.
Funerals were held at a rate of three or four each hour at the local cemetery, which set
aside an entire section to bury the victims.
The story was reported around the world.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt sent a telegram to express her sympathy, as did the leader
of Germany’s Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler.
In the aftermath of the disaster, the Governor ordered a military court of inquiry, but was
stymied by the fact that most evidence had been destroyed in the blast.
It was determined that the gas leak was likely to have been in a faulty connection where
the school tapped into the residue line.
Gas had accumulated in the void space under the floor and the basement, steadily rising
until a spark had ignited it.
No school officials were found liable for the blast, which angered many parents.
Several lawsuits against the Parade Gasoline Company were initiated, but due to a lack
of evidence, all were dismissed.
The shock and horror of the tragedy did prompt swift action from authorities.
By May, 1937, two months after the blast, House Bill 1017 was approved and became immediately
effective.
This required a strong-smelling malodorant to be added to natural gas, so that people
would be able to tell if there was a leak.
This is now standard practice all over the world – a simple intervention that has without
a doubt saved many, many lives.
A memorial was built in 1939, and stands today in front of a new school which was built as
a replacement.
An exhibit in the New London Museum displays artefacts that were rescued from the wreckage,
including a classroom chalkboard which reads, “Oil and natural gas are East Texas’s
greatest mineral blessing.”
Famed broadcaster Walter Cronkite was a junior reporter for United Press at the time of the
disaster, and attended the scene.
He went on to cover World War Two and the Nuremberg Trials, as well as anchoring the
CBS Evening News.
Late in his career, he said, “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 equalled it."