PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio 1020 KDKA) – Rob Pratte talked with local authors David Brown and Michael Mereschagin about the worst school disaster in American history.

At 3:17 p.m. on March 18, 1937, a natural gas leak beneath the London Junior-Senior High School in the oil boomtown of New London, Texas, created a lethal mixture of gas and oxygen in the school’s basement.

The odorless, colorless gas went undetected until the flip of an electrical switch triggered a colossal blast.

The two-story school, one of the nation’s most modern, disintegrated, burying everyone under a vast pile of rubble and debris.

More than 300 students and teachers were killed, and hundreds more were injured.

Take a listen and read the book.