BULLETIN FROM....

Fall 1997

STAR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, SPENCER OKLAHOMA JANUARY 1982

"The worst thing I 've ever seen "

On January 19, 1982 ­ a cold, clear day in central Oklahoma, with only a dusting of snow on the ground ­ the children of Star Elementary School in Spencer, like school children everywhere, were looking forward to a break after a morning in stuffy classrooms. A noisy romp on the playground after lunch would be just the ticket. But some of those children never got the chance to play again.

At quarter past noon that Tuesday, disaster struck Star Elementary. Within seconds, six students and one teacher were dead, most crushed to death against a concrete wall. Forty­two others, adults and children, were injured, some severely.

Debris was everywhere ­ twisted steel, broken concrete, shards of glass. There were body parts, too, and a great deal of blood. Where seconds before a concrete­block exterior wall had stood, there was now a gaping hole through which benumbed survivors could see the blue winter sky. And on the playground, adjacent to the cafeteria, lay the remains of an 80­gallon steel water heater that had fallen from the sky. The vessel, a tangled parody of its former shape, had narrowly missed hitting several youngsters as it crashed to the ground.

The kids on the playground were lucky not to be crushed by the falling steel ­ luckier still not to have been in the cafeteria this crisp sunny day when the carelessness of an adult brought terror upon the unsuspecting. A place that was supposed to be a haven from injury ­ much less mortal injury ­ had become a killing field, depriving seven families of loved ones.

Those who survived the disaster will never forget January 19, 1982. Neither will James Greenawalt, Jr. Mr. Greenawalt retired in June 1995 as Oklahoma's chief boiler inspector. In 1982, he was a field inspector for the state's Labor Department and helped investigate the explosion of an 80­gallon hotwater heater in the kitchen of Star Elementary.

"I don't know quite how to say it," Mr. Greenawalt said, "but until you've wandered around in the debris after an explosion, you can't imagine what happens when 80 gallons of water overheat and explode. A water heater taking off like a steam­driven rocket right through the kitchen roof, up into the air, landing on a playground 135 feet from its operating location. Roof girders twisted like pretzels. Walls missing. People stunned. Parents weeping for their children. It was the worst thing I've ever seen."

"That water heater had sat in disrepair for three or four years," Mr. Greenawalt said. "...the controls had been tampered with ­ the safety valve was in the wrong place, the temperature probe had been removed." Heretofore, Oklahoma's boiler law, passed in 1921, had covered only high­pressure steam boilers. There was no formal program to make sure that the water heater was looked at.

(Taken from the Fall 1995 National Board Bulletin)

The above clearly illustrates the great need to maintain and test operating and safety controls and devices on these potentially lethal vessels.

Royal Insurance endeavors to inspect all boilers and pressure vessels on a regular basis and this, in conjunction with the day­to­day maintenance, checks and tests performed by your maintenance and custodial staff, should ensure that a catastrophic incident as described above never happens in our schools.

Therefore, let us all reaffirm our dedication to maintaining and improving the existing testing, preventative maintenance and inspection program we now have in place.

It is incumbent on us to keep safety uppermost in mind; we must all be vigilant in this matter.

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