1937 жылғы Техас штатының Нью-Лондон мектебіндегі газ жарылысы

Gas leak explosion in New London, Texas in 1937

The New London School explosion occurred on March 18, 1937, when a natural gas leak caused an explosion and destroyed the London School in New London, Texas, United States. The disaster killed more than 300 students and teachers. as of 2021, the event is the third deadliest disaster in the history of Texas, after the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the 1947 Texas City disaster.

In the mid 1930s, despite the ongoing economic turmoil of the Great Depression, the school district in New London, Texas (formerly known as London) was one of the richest in the United States. The 1930 discovery of oil in Rusk County had boosted the local economy, and education spending grew with it. The city's taxable value in 1937 had grown to $20 million, with additional revenue seen from fifteen oil wells on district property. The London School, a large structure of steel and concrete, was constructed in 1932 at a cost of $1 million (roughly $ today). Its football team, the London Wildcats (a play on the term "wildcatter", for an oil prospector), played in one of the first stadiums in the state to have electric lights. The London School was built on sloping ground, and a large air space was enclosed 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. 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 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 considered 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. Untreated natural gas is both odorless and colorless, so leaks are difficult to detect and may go unnoticed. Gas had been leaking from the residue line tap and built up inside the enclosed crawlspace that ran the entire 253 feet (77 m) length of the main school building's facade. Students had been complaining of headaches for some time, but little attention had been paid to the issue.

On March 18, 1937, first through fourth grade students were let out early; the following day's classes had been canceled to allow students to participate in the Interscholastic Meet, a scholastic and athletic competition, in neighboring Henderson. A PTA meeting was being held in the gymnasium, a separate structure roughly 100 feet (30 m) from the main building. Approximately 500 students and 40 teachers were in the main building at the time, although some numbers claim there were roughly 694 students in the main building and at the campus. At 3:17 p. m., 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. Those who evacuated the building after the explosion were in a state of shock, with some recounting that they did not know what to do next and that it seemed the world was dead silent until the sound came back all at once. Other school buses were employed to drive ambulatory survivors back to their homes, causing family members who were waiting at the bus stops to demand information from students disembarking.

The number of people estimated killed in the explosion is 294, but the actual number of victims remains unknown. Of the deceased, the majority were from grades five through eleven, as the younger students were educated in a separate building and most had already been dismissed from school. The majority of the fatalities are buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery near New London, with an entire section being designated for the victims. It was thought that one mother had a heart attack and died when she found out that her daughter was killed, with only part of her face, her chin and a couple of bones recovered, but this story was found to be untrue when both mother and daughter were found alive.

Many victims were identified by clothing or personal items, such as a boy who was identified by the presence of the pull string from his favorite shirt in his jeans pocket. A student survivor recounted being in a makeshift morgue: "I saw fathers fight over dead children like dogs over a bone, yelling 'That's mine!' 'No, mine!' I saw children who looked like roadkill; you couldn't tell if it was a boy, girl, or what."

The surviving gymnasium was quickly converted into multiple classrooms. Inside tents and modified buildings, classes resumed ten days later, with the thirty surviving seniors completing the school year in the gymnasium. Eleanor Roosevelt sent a telegram to express her sympathy. Adolf Hitler, who was the leader of Nazi Germany at the time, paid his respects in the form of a telegram, a copy of which is on display at the London Museum.

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 because natural gas is invisible and is odorless, the leak was unnoticed. The sander's switch is believed to have caused a spark that ignited the gas air mixture. To reduce the damage of future leaks, the Texas state legislature granted the Texas Railroad Commission regulatory authority "to adopt and enforce regulations for the odorization of natural gas in order to prevent such accidents". Within weeks of the explosion, thiol (mercaptan, an odorous sulfur compound) was added to natural gas. The use of the title "engineer" in Texas remains legally restricted to those who have been professionally certified by the state to practice engineering. In 1998, The London Museum and Tea House, across the highway from the school site, opened. Its first curator, Mollie Ward, was an explosion survivor. 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, When Even Angels Wept, was released in 2009. It is told almost exclusively by survivors and eyewitnesses. 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. In March 2012, survivors and others gathered together at the town's rebuilt school in remembrance of the 75th anniversary of the disaster. In 2012, Brown began work on a new documentary about the east Texas oil field discovery and its eventual role in the New London School disaster. The film, Shadow Across The Path, was released in 2017, and features excerpts from an interview that Brown conducted with Walter Cronkite in his New York office at CBS. The New London school explosion was then 20 year old Cronkite's first national story. The documentary also features interviews with blast survivors.