East Ohio Gas Co. Explosion October 20, 1944

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Today marks the 81st anniversary of the East Ohio Gas Co Explosion in Cleveland, Ohio. It joins a list of devastating urban accidental explosions such as Delft (1654),Texas City (1947), Beirut (2020), and of course, Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1917.

The LNG holding company - between East 61st and East 62nd Streets just south of the NY Central and Pennsylvania RR tracks in East Cleveland exploded at 2:43 PM on Friday 10/20/1944 after a vapor leak exploded killing 136 civilians, injuring 400, and destroying or damaging 130 buildings, and 600 vehicles over a quarter square mile.

Engine Company 19 was about 1300 feet away. Before leaving quarters, the Captain ordered the Fire Alarm Office to strike Box 1361 at E, 55th Street and St. Clair Avenue (19's home box) and make a 2-2. After a brief windshield survey, he ordered his driver to return to quarters where he ordered the 5-5 (Cleveland FD wouldn't get radios until April, 1945). The fire itself was declared under control around Midnight.

 

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On October 20th, 1944 my mother, then a 24 year old graduate nursing student at Western Reserve University, was working at the University Hospital on Euclid Avenue. This was about three miles south of the explosion site. Although she was busy with the wave of injured citizens, she told me that the thing she remembered most was several hours later when a bunch of late-stage pregnant women showed up in active labor,

The theory was that the explosion pressure wave somehow started the "It's time to go kid, you can't stay here any longer!" process known as labor and delivery. I guess it's kind of like getting ketchup out of the bottle or forcing the door.