New London School Disaster Explosion

This is a photo of the school before the explosion.

Hundreds of students and faculty were killed in the blast.

People of all ages flocked to the scene to aid in the rescue.

This is an aerial view of the accident scene several days after the explosion.

The scene that night on March 18th. Flood lights were brought in to aid the search.

AP Photo - New London School
The New London School before the explosion.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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AP Photo - Graveyard of a schoolhouse
New London, Texas, March 22 - The ridge of earth showing in this air photo indicates the foundation line of the Consolidated school where an explosion killed 425. The debris in the background was quickly cleared away by thousands of volunteer workers who pitched in to help remove the crushed bodies of the school children.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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AP Photo - Hundreds died this death
New London, Texas, March 19 - One of the hundreds of crushed and mutilated bodies found following the gas blast which wrecked the model New London School building yesterday with over 500 lives lost. A building jack is being used to raise the tons of debris which pinned this boy's body.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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AP Photo - Classrooms demolished
New London, Texas, March 21 - Heavy tile bricks from walls were blown into classrooms in New London, Texas school blast. Fatal to hundreds.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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AP Photo - School head assisted from inquiry
New London, Texas, March 23 - Superintendent W. C. Shaw of the New London Consolidated School is being assisted from a hearing into the blast which took 455 lives in the school. He collapsed on the stand as he testified at a military court of inquiry. He is shown on the left.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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AP Photo - Power of the gas explosion
New London, Texas, March 20 - Wreckage of a nearby parked car follows the natural gas explosion which demolished the New London School plant. An estimated 500 teachers and children perished in the blast.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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AP Photo - Trucks serve as hearses
New London, Texas, March 22 - With the supply of hearses exhausted by more than 400 funerals for the blast victims, trucks were used instead. Four caskets are shown going on trucks to the cemetery after a quadruple funeral. One of them is in the closed truck.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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AP Photo - School explosion wreckage
New London, Texas, March 18 - This was the scene in New London, Texas in 1937 as rescue workers went through the wreckage of an explosion that killed 232 children and 14 teachers.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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AP Photo - Probing school blast cause
New London, Texas, March 21 - A.G. Belew (right) salesman who sold equipment for heating the blasted consolidated school, testifies at a hearing on the cause of the tragedy in which 425 lost their lives. Maj. Gaston B. Howard (left at table), General of Texas, headed the inquiry board.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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AP Photo - Mother takes last look at child
New London, Texas, March 21 - A grieving mother at the graveside of her child is granted a last glimpse at a tiny victim of the Consolidated School blast. This scene typifies many similar situations as surrounding communities buried their hundreds of dead.
Photo courtesy of Michael Brown.
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