The following appeared in The Republic.
Source:
The Republic
November 22, 1998
Fifty years ago, the still of an autumn evening was shaken by an explosion north of Seymour which was heard as far away as Columbus and North Vernon.
The "Big Inch" natural gas line exploded at 5:45 p.m. Nov. 19, 1948, sending a column of flaming gas 600 feet in the air and visible 60 miles away.
Free-lance writer Betty Newsom Calender takes a look back at that historic event.
By Betty Newsom Calender
For The Republic
Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the "Big Inch" natural gas line explosion north of Seymour.
Big Inch exploded at 5:45 p.m. Nov. 19, 1948. A mammoth column of flaming gas rising 300 to 600 feet in the air was seen 60 miles away.
The Friday evening explosion of igniting gas in the 24-inch transmission line was heard in Columbus and North Vernon. The loss of gas, five buildings, power facilities and all equipment totaled $2 million. Fourteen cars and three trucks also were lost.
Big Inch was the country's major natural gas transmission line, running from the Texas oil fields to the East. It was operated by Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. in Shreveport, La. Big Inch was carrying 635 pounds of pressure at the time of the break.
Escaping gas probably blew rocks and other material, causing a spark which ignited with a roar outside the pumping station buildings. The pressure of the escaping gas held the burning column four feet above the ground, and the heat from the burning gas kept people 200 feet away.
An hour later, another explosion caused a second column of flame in the Big Inch line. Several Illinois oil men at the scene said Big Inch's fire show was comparable to an oil well fire. Wet brush kept the fire from spreading very far.
The first of 17 state policemen at the scene said the noise of the burning gas was "like 20 railroad locomotives with all their steam jets open."
Windows rattled and continued to shake from air waves as the fire progressed. The flaming columns lighted the interiors of homes as bright as day.
Mrs. W. T. Walker's nearby farm home trembled for two hours as the flames roared at the height of the blaze. At another home a mile away, windows were broken and a door blown from its frame.
Three missing children were later found unharmed.
Harold Williams was driving along U.S. 31 in his new Hudson automobile when suddenly he found himself in the soft shoulder at the side of the road.
There was no noise, and no sensation for a few seconds, until the deafening roar of the flames started. The heat was too intense to roll his window down The flames' light was so bright his eyes still hurt the next morning.
He quickly drove away when he remembered he was very close to the crossing where the pipeline went under the road.
Loud and bright
Frederick M. Sutter said that shouting into someone's ear was the only way to be heard over the noise of the flames 1,000 feet away.
A state policeman warned observers that a 3,000-gallon storage tank was in the vicinity and might explode. Many cleared out.
Hemmed in by other cars, Sutter read a magazine by the light of the flames, 1,200 feet away. The light was so bright, headlights didn't show in the road, and Jonesville had the appearance of early morning.
Representatives of the transmission firm quickly shut off the pipeline at Medora, Batesville and Somerset, Ohio. The gas in the line burned down by 9:30 p.m. State police and fire crews stayed at the scene until after 11 p.m. Friday.
Repair crews began replacing broken pipes before daylight. Since the pumping station was destroyed, they bypassed the wreckage with both lines. Only half of the 1,470-mile line, stretching from Texas to New York City, was in operation.
The Big Inch was built during World War II to carry oil from the Texas oil fields to relieve the critical shortage on the eastern seaboard. It was sold, together with the Little Inch, to the Texas Transmission Corp. of Houston on Feb. 14, 1947, for $143,127,000 and converted to carrying natural gas.
It crosses the southern part of Indiana, from Evansville to Richmond.
Eighteen of the 30 men working at the pumping station making alterations were treated for injuries. The heat of the flames burned the men's bodies through their clothing as they escaped.
Some workers went home and changed clothes before reporting to the hospital. It was five hours before all workers were accounted for.
Three remained in Schneck Memorial Hospital at Seymour overnight because of possible lung injuries from the intense heat.
Most of the injured men, ages 22 to 60, were from other states, including Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. Several men received burns on their backs, necks and ears from the blistering heat as they raced to safety. Some had to claw their way over an 8-foot fence.
Local workers who received treatment were Jack Clark of Columbus and Charles Beineke, both 39, Leroy Olson, 23, Roy Tropp, 59, Donald Burke, 33, and James Frank, 60, of Seymour.
"It was the most horrible and loudest thing ever heard," Charles Beineke said from his hospital bed. "We were surrounded by fire in a split second. I ran to a door but
couldn't get out. There was a wall of fire in front of me. I tried another door and ran into the yard.
"The wind was blowing flames against my back," Beineke said. "A second explosion knocked me down. I got up and ran toward the fence. I tried to get over it and fell back. I tried again and somehow made it. I just ran and ran across fields for maybe two miles."
A busy place
Columbus police headquarters served as a communications and information center. Three telephones were busy constantly.
Radio operator Clarence Miller was on the radio and phone for more than four hours, receiving and relaying messages. Mayor Bob Stevenson also helped out at police headquarters.
Robert J. Marshall wrote in the Evening Republican; "The Big Inch gas line exploded Friday night near Seymour and gave Columbus and other neighboring towns their biggest spectacle since the burning of Rome.
"Near bedlam followed a muffled roar that shook windows and turned the entire southern sky into a fiery red. Fire trucks and police cars ran in all directions. Telephones jumped up and down. Motorists jammed the south end of Columbus trying to find a fire that was 12 air miles away."
Charles Brown of Seymour, city editor of the Seymour Tribune, was at home five miles away.
"At first people in Seymour thought it was Northern Lights," he said.
He was among the first at the scene, but after going back for a camera, was unable to get close again because of the traffic jam.
The fiery sky was seen as far away as Madison, Louisville, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Shelbyville saw the blaze and sent its policemen.
Several early telephone calls came into the Bell Telephone office, reporting the fire, but none had the right location.
Shortly after the blast a woman called the Central fire station by long distance and reported that "Big Inch has blown up, please send help." A bouquet to her. She was the first to get word through on exactly what had happened.
East Columbus firemen, believing it was a farm blaze south of the city, took off in individual cars.
"We had the largest number of calls in our history," said Fire Chief Dale Greenlee. Firemen struggled to keep two of the workmen who had been in the blast from going back after their cars which were already in flames.
"The two were glassy-eyed and didn't seem to know what had happened to them," Greenlee said.
Reports from Columbus believed the blaze to be at the foot of Franklin Street or Lafayette Avenue, the Molded Plastic plant, the Pure Oil plant on 31A south of Garden City or an airliner crash south of the city.
There also were reports that the reduction plant was burning. The first call to the rural fire department came from a woman reporting a "terrible fire on the Ed Zurbrugg farm south of the city."
The rural truck was dispatched and just kept going until it reached the Big Inch pumping station.
Columbus, East Columbus and Flat Rock fire departments sent aid to the scene. Off shifts were called out to replace the men moved out of the city.
Assisting state police were policemen from Columbus, Shelbyville and Seymour. The Red Cross sent aid from North Vernon and the Seymour American Legion post served coffee to workers at the scene.
In the way as usual
The state police post at Seymour had one of the busiest nights in its history. State policemen were on duty at the scene and on highways trying to keep traffic from snarling.
Officers reported that motorists refused to give right of way to emergency vehicles.
"They just simply refused to drive to the side of the road or to stop," lamented one trooper. "Tying up an emergency vehicle might easily mean the difference between life and death," he added.
Fifty years later sightseers haven't changed much.