An aerial view of the New London school explosion. Source: NLSE.orgThe New London School explosion occurred on March 18, 1937, when the ignition of a natural gas leak caused an explosion, destroying the Consolidated High School of the city of New London, Texas. The explosion killed approximately 298 of the 500 students and forty teachers in the building, making it the worst disaster to occur in a U.S. school building. Subsequent deaths of people injured in the explosion brought the death count to about 311. The exact death toll remains uncertain due to the large transient population that was common in the Texas oil and gas fields.

The New London School explosion ranks as the third worst disaster in Texas history, behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 (6-12,000 dead) and the detonation of 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate in 1947 in Texas City (581 dead). The accident caused the Texas legislature to require that a malodorant be added to natural gas so that leaks can be more easily

Built in 1931 with additions in 1934, the steel-framed structure was designed in the California-Spanish style, with hollow tile and brick trimmed in stone. It was set on sloping ground with a large dead-air space contained beneath the structure. The School Board chose to ignore the architect's plans for a boiler and steam heat system, an instead decided to install 72 individual gas-steam heaters. Plans to ventilate basement areas, which housed the gas and electrical equipment, were never adopted.

Sifting through the rubble of the explosion. Credit: Mary MarshallAt 3:05 P.M. Lemmie R. Butler, instructor of manual training, turned on a sanding machine in an area which, unknown to him, was filled with a mixture of gas and air. The switch ignited the mixture and carried the flame into a nearly closed space beneath the building, 253 feet long and fifty-six feet wide. Immediately the building seemed to lift in the air and then smashed to the ground. Walls collapsed. The roof fell in and buried its victims in a mass of brick, steel, and concrete debris. The explosion was heard four miles away, and it hurled a two-ton concrete slab 200 feet away, where it crushed a car.

Reporting from the scene was 22-year-old Walter Cronkite, a newly hired United Press International reporter who would become a journalism icon covering major global events. Cronkite later said that nothing had prepared him for the scene he would find upon his arrival in New London:

"I'll never forget that scene. I can still see those floodlights they had set up and the big oil-field cranes that had been brought in to remove the rubble. Men were moving around like a colony of ants, climbing up and down the piles of debris, literally digging with their hands…Grief was everywhere…Almost everyone you ran into had lost a member."

Texas Governor James V. Allred appointed a military court of inquiry. The state of Texas and the Bureau of Mines sent experts to the scene. Hearings were conducted. From these investigations, researchers learned that until January 18, 1937, the school had received its gas from the United Gas Company. To save gas expenses of 300 dollars a month, plumbers, with the knowledge and approval of the school board and superintendent, had tapped a residue gas line of Parade Gasoline Company. School officials saw nothing wrong because the use of "green" or "wet" gas was a frequent money-saving practice for homes, schools, and churches in the oilfield. The researchers concluded that gas had escaped from a faulty connection and accumulated beneath the building. Green gas has no smell; no one knew it was accumulating beneath the building, although on other days there had been evidence of leaking gas. No school officials were found liable.

The school was rebuilt and named West Rusk High School. A cenotaph of Texas pink granite was erected in front of the new school in 1939. The monument is surrounded by a pink granite fence etched with the names of those who died. Every two years, alumni from all graduating classes gather for a mass reunion on the weekend closest to the disaster's anniversary.

Reactions to the tragedy poured in. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt wired her sympathies, as did German dictator Adolf Hitler. A Japanese elementary class sent a telegram expressing its sorrow. Soon a memorial fund was established and donations arrived from around the world. A Girl Scout troop in Kansas sent 25 cents it had collected. A 5-year-old Galveston girl who had been saving her pennies to purchase a doll mailed them to New London, saying she would rather they be used to memorialize the dead children. Students at the Cherbourg School in France conducted a drive and collected $9.50.

On March 21, 1998, the London Museum opened across the highway from the school. The museum has three rooms, one of which is a reproduction of a classroom. The room contains an antique blackboard, found in the rubble that day, on which a student had written the following words, apparently before the explosion:

"Oil and natural gas are East Texas' greatest mineral blessings. Without them this school would not be here and none of us would be learning our lessons."

Sources

• Castaneda, Christopher, Manufactured and Natural Gas Industry, EH.Net, Accessed 24 August 2008.
• The Depot Museum, New London Explosion, Accessed 24 August 2008.
• Hilliard, Robert, The New London School Disaster: The Day The Clock Stood Still, Accessed 24 August 2008.
• Grigg, William N. Jr., New London, Texas school explosion, Accessed 24 August 2008.
• Stowers, Carlton,Today, a Generation Died: Revisiting the story of the 1937 New London gas explosion--the worst tragedy involving schoolchildren in American history, Dallas Observer, February 21, 2002. Accessed 24 August 2008.
• Texas State Historical Association, New London School Explosion, in Handbook of Texas Online, Accessed 24 August 2008.
• London Museum of New London, Texas, Accessed 24 August 2008.