(March 18, 2007)--A memorial service Sunday in East Texas marks the 70th anniversary of the deadliest school catastrophe in US history.

Seventy years ago Sunday at 3:05 p.m. a manual training instructor flipped the switch on a sanding machine, creating a spark that ignited a mixture of natural gas and air, leveling the New London School in northwest Rusk County, about 40 miles southwest of Longview.

Witnesses later said the walls of the school bulged outward and the roof briefly lifted in the air.

Then the roof collapsed, burying victims under tons of brick, steel and debris.

About 600 students and 40 teachers were in the building at the time.

Fewer than 150 completely escaped injury and nearly 300 died, although the number could be higher because it was unclear how many of the transient oilfield workers whose children attended the school collected bodies and then left the area.

Within minutes of the explosion, residents and oilfield workers had rushed to the scene to launch a frantic effort to reach the students and teachers trapped under the debris.

Gov. James Allred dispatched Texas Rangers and Texas National Guard troops.

Doctors, nurses and embalmers from Dallas hurried to the area and personnel from Barksdale Airfield in Louisiana also rushed to the scene to help.

The rescuers worked through a rainy night and within 17 hours the site had been cleared.

Many of the bodies the rescuers recovered were burned or mangled beyond recognition.

Only the pull string from a favorite toy found in a jeans pocket identified one boy as a victim.

Buildings in communities as far away as Tyler and Longview were converted into makeshift morgues and funerals were held almost non-stop for many days.

Among the reporters who covered the aftermath was a young Walter Cronkite, later anchor of the CBS Evening News who went on to cover wars and disasters around the world.

But New London, he later said, was worst.

"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 equalled it."

Investigators later determined that school officials, in order to save money during the depths of the Depression, had authorized tapping a residual natural gas line, which at the time was a frequent money-saving practice.

The “green” or “wet” gas had no smell and no one knew the line was leaking and that gas had accumulated beneath the building.

The explosion led to passage of a state odorization law, which is responsible for the distinctive smell natural gas has now.

Click Here For New London School Explosion Web Site

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