The Pittsburgh gasometer explosion, or Equitable Gas explosion, was a bizarre accident that took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on the morning of November 14, 1927. A huge cylindrical gasometer, the largest in the world at that time, developed a leak, and repairmen were sent to fix it. The repairmen used an open flame blowtorch to find the leak. This turned out to be a serious mistake. The leak was found, but the tank full of natural gas then floated into the air like a balloon and exploded, causing a rain of fire and metal over a one mile radius. 28 people were killed and hundreds were injured.
Famous quotes containing the words gas, pittsburgh and/or explosion:
“Shielded, what sorts of life are stirring yet:
Legs lagged like drains, slippers soft as fungus,
The gas and grate, the old cold sour grey bed.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“The largest business in American handled by a woman is the Money Order Department of the Pittsburgh Post-office; Mary Steel has it in charge.”
—Lydia Hoyt Farmer (1842–1903)
“Frau Stöhr ... began to talk about how fascinating it was to cough.... Sneezing was much the same thing. You kept on wanting to sneeze until you simply couldn’t stand it any longer; you looked as if you were tipsy; you drew a couple of breaths, then out it came, and you forgot everything else in the bliss of the sensation. Sometimes the explosion repeated itself two or three times. That was the sort of pleasure life gave you free of charge.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)