A routine school day in the small town of New London, Texas, turned into one of the deadliest disasters in American history when a massive explosion ripped through the New London Consolidated School, reducing much of the five-year-old building to rubble in just a few seconds. By the time the dust settled, 295 people, most of them children, had lost their lives, making it the deadliest school disaster in US history. The tragedy unfolded on March 18, 1937, after an odorless natural gas leak beneath the school ignited without warning. Investigators later discovered that the school had been using natural gas taken illegally from a nearby pipeline, a cost-cutting decision that ultimately transformed gas safety regulations around the world.
