English subtitles for clip: File:1937-03-20 Children Die As Gas Explosion Shatters School.ogv

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It is with deep regret that we bring you these graphic, appalling scenes

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of one of the greatest tragedies in American history.

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Hundreds of schoolchildren, and their teachers,

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killed and mangled, some of them literally blown to bits,

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others crushed by falling masonry,

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when their new, consolidated grade and high school in the center of the rich East Texas oil field

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was shattered by a terrific gas explosion.

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Had the blast occurred ten minutes later, school would have been dismissed

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and the death toll small, perhaps.

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But it struck when only the lower grades and a few others had left,

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catching almost the entire student body in an inferno of flying debris and falling walls.

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There was no warning.

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Before the eyes of persons in the vicinity,

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including scores of parents assembled for a meeting in a nearby building,

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the schoolhouse, one of the finest rural structures in the country,

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suddenly burst asunder and collapsed.

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In the remaining hours of daylight, and through the long, terrible night,

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the scenes of the disaster were indescribable, terrible.

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a wild confusion of feverish rescue work by floodlights,

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with their gruesome ghostly shadows.

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And everywhere sobbing hysterical parents, hoping against hope,

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and bravely trying to identify mangled little bodies through their tears.

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Hour by hour the death toll rises, the injured too,

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as rescue workers from the nearby oilfields uncover the pitiful remains of their children,

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or break occasionally into some living tomb.

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There's scarcely a home in the entire school district untouched by the disaster.

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A disaster caused it is believed by gas pockets which had collected in the school's subbasement.

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In the long list of American catastrophes, this is one of the worst. 

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The entire nation bows in grief.