New London Schoolhouse Explosion: Lack of Focus
“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 equaled it.” Walter Cronkite
Propane doesn’t smell. It’s odorless in its natural state. But if there is a leak, you smell a nasty odor.
Ever wonder why?
It would have been fortuitous if this had been done as more and more buildings began to use propane and gas for heating. But no one thought of doing it until they realized they had to.
Lessons learned that save lives later, often come at high cost.
The Facts
On March 18, 1937, a gas leak was sparked, causing an explosion that killed approximately 293 students and teachers at the New London School in New London, Texas. It is still the deadliest school disaster in U.S. History.
The Cascading Events DEFINITION: An event prior to a catastrophe that contributes to the actual catastrophe, but by itself, is not catastrophic.
Cascade One
The school board overrode the architect’s plan for heating the school.
The original plan, as drawn up by the architect, called for the school to be heated by a boiler and a steam system. But the school board overrode that and insisted on a gas system in order to save money.
The New London Schoolhouse was located in Rusk County and despite the rest of the country being bogged down in the Great Depression; it was one of the richest areas in the country. Oil fueled the local economy. There were even 11 derricks located right on school grounds. The school was relatively new, having been built in 1932.
Despite a large amount of money spent on the construction, the decision was made to heat the school with 72 gas heaters, rather than the planned centralized boiler and steam system. The architect warned them that the building wasn’t designed to vent gas fumes, but they proceeded anyway.
Lesson
Experts are just that.
There are actually two problems here wrapped in one. First is ignoring the original plans for the building. A heating system is integral to such plans and in this case, the building had been designed for steam heat. Switching to multiple gas heaters ignored the basic construction of the building. And ignoring the warning that the building wasn’t designed to vent gas fumes was piled on top of that.
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Filed under: Write It forward Tagged: catastrophe, disaster, school
