This Day in History: The New London School explosion occurred on this day in 1937, when a natural gas leak caused an explosion, destroying the London School of New London, Texas, a community in Rusk County previously known as "London". The disaster killed more than 295 students and teachers. This event is the third deadliest disaster in the history of Texas, after the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the 1947 Texas City disaster (one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions). This story is what happens when school officials make bad decisions. To save money on heating the school building, the trustees had authorized workers to tap into a pipeline carrying “waste” natural gas produced by a gasoline refinery. The explosion led to laws that now require gas companies to add the familiar pungent odor.
This was such big news at the time that even Adolf Hitler paid his respects in the form of a telegram, a copy of which is on display at the London Museum.
There was also another large school disaster in 1908 (the Collinwood school fire) that killed 172 students, two teachers and one rescuer. 1958 saw the "Our Lady of the Angels School" fire in Chicago that killed 92 pupils and 3 nuns.
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