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Natchitoches
Pipeline Disaster
March 4, 1965
Cammie G. Henry Research Center Resources: Urbach
Collection, Natchitoches Times, Natchitoches Enterprise
Seventeen people were killed March 4,
1965 just north of Natchitoches when a natural gas pipeline
exploded at 6:03 a.m. A fireball formed following
the blast and flames shot hundreds of feet into the air. Some
Natchitoches residents saw the fireball to the north, and thought
Barksdale Air Force Base had come under atomic attack.
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Five houses in a small community just
across Highway 1 from the Natchitoches Country Club were destroyed in the blast
and the ensuing fire.
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Several families escaped from nearby
homes, including nine people who were treated at Natchitoches Parish
Hospital for shock, abrasions and scratches.
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The line ruptured between
two parallel country lanes leading from the highway, but houses
west of the blast escaped damage because the force of the
burning gas was directed like a blowtorch flame toward the eastern
group.
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Officials of Tennessee Gas Pipeline
Company said the fact that the pipe did not rupture with a bell shaped
opening or with the pipe bent upwards indicated a possible wrinkle
bend was involved in the pipeline failure.
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There was no
construction underway on the line, and nothing else was out of the
ordinary that officials could point to that would contribute to
the blast. Investigations concluded that the pipeline failed structurally, and leaking gas was ignited
by open flame heaters in one of the houses. This was the first
pipeline failure attributed to what is called stress-corrosion
cracking (SCC).
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The explosion was so violent it shook
buildings across the area and was heard several miles past Montgomery
and Calvin in adjoining parishes.
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The bursting pipe threw mud for long
distances, and covered the side of a nearby tree so that it
escaped the flames, but all trees and vegetation on several acres were
burned, leaving stark trunks upright. The pipeline had broken once
before in May 1955 about 300 yards away. No one was injured in
that blast.
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Victims were:
Ola Dean Barbo, 19
Sonya Barbo, 4
Sandra Elaine Barbo, 2
Donald Barbo, Jr, 8 months
J.R. Rond, 42
Mrs. J.R. Rond, 40
Charles Rond, 14
Danny Rond, 9
Louis Gilcrease, 44
Mrs. Willie Ammons, 28
David Eugene Ammons, 3 months
Mrs. Lawson Antley, 47
Jack Van Meter, 32
Mrs. Jack Van Meter, 23
Ruthie Michelle Van Meter, 2
Melody Van Meter, 3
Renee Van Meter, 6
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