School tragedy where 300 students died? It happened in the United States in the 20th century

[Dan Druff]

Very few people know about this, including me prior to today. I don't know why this hasn't been discussed more, as something like this today would be HUGE news.

In 1937, there was an oil boom in the city of New London, Texas. With oil money, a new school was constructed, and an underground natural gas line was used to heat the school.

The line leaked, and a spark from a shop class ignited the gas. The entire building exploded, with over 600 people inside.

Over 300 people died (almost all students, with a few teachers/administrators as well), with the other 300 or so being injured.

They did not have an exact number of deaths, between the poor record keeping at the time and the fact that there were many migrant oil workers in town.



The gas was untreated, so there was no odor and people had no way to tell it had leaked.

Today's natural gas is treated with an intentional odor, so you can smell a gas leak and take action. Many people think that natural gas' odor is the regular odor of the gas, but in fact it's a chemical called mercaptan which is added so you can detect gas leaks with your nose.

As an aside, a young Walter Cronkite (21 years old at the time) covered this as one of this first journalism assignments.

[SrslySirius]

I was surprised to learn a few years ago that Texas City (where I lived in at the time) was home to the greatest industrial accident in US history, killing 580 people and injuring over 5,000. Most people I know have never heard of the incident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

[Benford]

Today's natural gas is treated with an intentional odor, so you can smell a gas leak and take action. Many people think that natural gas' odor is the regular odor of the gas, but in fact it's a chemical called mercaptan which is added so you can detect gas leaks with your nose.

Ironic that you brought up mercaptan, because the substance killed 4 people in Texas just yesterday: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...nt-5896321.php

[herbertstemple]

Was killing time one day waiting for a customer to return from lunch, started thumbing through a magazine and found this story. Was not aware of this story till then.


SS Sultana was a Mississippi River side-wheel steamboat that exploded on April 27, 1865 in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. An estimated 1,800 of her 2,427 passengers died.

Most of the passengers were Union soldiers, chiefly from Ohio and just released from Confederate prison camps such as Cahawba and Andersonville.

This disaster has long since, past and present, been overshadowed in the press by other recent events. John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, was killed the day before.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana

[Krypt]

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[Daly]

This board is never boring. One minute you got a wagering thread. The next you got two dudes arguing about what Twink has a bigger cock. Then you get a history lesson on school explosions.