450 BODIES RECOVERED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 67, 20 March 1937, Page 9

450 BODIES RECOVERED

ORGANISED SEARCH OF RUINS

DEMAND FOR COFFINS

LIKELY CAUSE OF EXPLOSION

NEW YORK, March 19. Latest figures concerning the school explosion reveal that 450 bodies have been recovered, of which 300 are identified, -while it will probably be a day more before coniDlete tabulation of the dead and injured is possible. Officials revised their estimate and placed the dead between 550 and 600. The bodies are being sent as far as Shreveport (Louisiana), and undertakers within a 100-mile radius have been summoned to assist in the funeral preparations. An emergency call was sent for coffins. One hundred National Guardsmen are maintaining order at the wrecked school as 3000 gloved men search the ruins, receiving directions by loudspeaker. Ropes around the grounds, kept parents away. Many people drove to the town to search for their children, and others waited at home by the radio to hear the names of the identified dead broadcast. The debris was loaded on lorries and hauled away to permit of further search. Scattered here and there are textbooks, ■ children's garments, and odds and ends of school equipment. Before the discovery of oil the school was just a little wooden structure with fewer than 100 students and four teachers. Oil was struck on the original school property, where there are now 12 wells, yielding the school royalty with which the 1,000,000-dollar plant was built on the new location. It was probably the largest and certainly the richest consolidated rural school in the world. It was wrongly reported that a boiler exploded. There was no boiler in the building, which was heated by natural so-called "wet" gas from the nearby oilfield. It seems likely that the leaking gas, which is odourless, accumulated under the building and was ignited by the flame of one of the radiators, which a few hours before had been lit when the temperature fell to 50 degrees. CHILDREN'S STORIES. The Overton correspondent of the "New York Times" says that Lawrence Baxter, aged 16, said he was in the study hall when the, explosion occurred. "Suddenly, the floor rose in a terrible blast like dynamite. I was hit on the back of the head by something and' I jumped out of a second floor window. ■ I saw 20 or 30 dead before leaping." Paula Echols, aged 15, said: "There was a roar and the entire roof fell on us in one piece. I could see one leg of my teacher round the corner of her desk." Martha Harris, aged 18, said: "The earth shook and broken glass came showering down. I looked out of a window of the home economy building, where I was studying, and saw friends dying like flies. Children were blown out through the roof. Some hung up there* and others fell to the ground. I saw girls in my class jumping out of windows. My brother Milton, aged 16, jumped and was hardly scratched, being only a little bruised. I will never forget how I saw my playmates' bodies torn. It was horrible." FLAMING HEAP OF DEBRIS. Three hundred feet away from the school, in the gymnasium, a separate building, 50 mothers were attending a parents' and teachers' meeting. The noise of the explosion caused a rush to the windows. Where the school stood they saw only a heap of twisted steel, bricks, and broken concrete from which flames were shooting. Screaming hysterically, the mothers raced across the campus and clawed the debris with bare hands to reach the children, whose cries were heard beneath the debris. Nearby oilfields closed down and the workers, who were the fathers of the children, hurried to the scene. There were so many rescuers that at first they handicapped and impeded one another. State police arrived, restored order, and assigned tasks to the rescuers. Darkness threatened to halt activity, but oil company electricians strung huge floodlights over the wreckage, and the rescue work and the search for bodies continued. The superintendent of the school, Mr. W. C. Shaw, said he believed that well over 500 children were killed. The woman who was the first arrival on the scene said she saw children lying everywhere. At least-90 per cent, were killed or injured. 10 MINUTES BEFORE CLOSING TIME. Twelve uninjured children were found to have been saved by a bookcase which held off the mortar and bricks. The school roll is more than 1500, but the younger children had been dismissed. It lacked only 10 minutes to dismissal time for the remainder when the blast occurred. Many of the younger children playing on the campus saw. the building collapse. A teacher was directing a class in physical exercises 100 yards from the school when a flying brick struck and killed one boy of the group. Mr. Shaw was walking across the campus at the time. He said his own son, aged 17, was inside and was believed to be dead. The bodies recovered now total 300. They are stretched in long rows on- the grass and are covered with sheets. Hours after the explosion the screams and moans of the injured could still be heard from the wreckage, giving rise to the hope that the death tolal might be less than at first feared, but Mr. Shaw said that many of the survivors were so injured that it would be impossible for them to live. ■ The little community of New Lon-

don has no hospital facilities. The nearest hospital is located a few miles from Overtoil, where there are only I the scantiest facilities. The injured were- taken into churches and homes. The school was part of a 1,000,000 dollar educational plant serving two school districts. It was completely modern and surrounded on all sides by oil j derricks. The building was . known I locally as the largest rural .school in | America. It was a combination of grade and high schools, and the stu-1 dents' ages ranged from six to 17. I Witnesses said that the explosion was not loud, but just a muffled boom, with a tumbling noise as the building disintegrated. MARTIAL LAW DECLARED. Martial law has been declared at the ! school and in the vicinity to facilitate rescue work. The Federal Red Cross, the War Department, and the Bureau of Mines set relief and investigatory machinery in motion. Appeals for aid were broadcast throughout the State and private motor-lorries were used to supplement available ambulances. The chief of the State Safety Depart-: ment sent fingerprint experts to aid in identification. The State Health Officer ordered all the departmental doctors and nurses in two counties to mobilise at the scene. Twenty-five automobiles- parked in the vicinity were demolished. The rescue work was better organised as night progressed. A huge crane from the oilfields lifted off tons of concrete debris, acetylene torches cut steel girders, and lorries carried off the injured. President Roosevelt issued a statement from Warm Springs: "With the rest of the nation I am shocked. I only hope that further information will lessen the scope of the tragedy.' "I have asked all Government agencies to render every assistance in. their power."