On this day in engineering history, a natural gas explosion killed 225 people and destroyed one square mile of Cleveland, Ohio. The disaster caused utilities to favor underground storage tanks and communities to question the safety of aboveground storage systems.
On the afternoon of October 20, 1944, vapors began to escape through a faulty seam on the side of Storage Tank No. 4, an aboveground vessel that held liquified natural gas (LNG) for the East Ohio Gas Company. The steel structure contained an extremely low amount of nickel, causing the metal to become brittle when exposed to the extreme cold of LNG.
Soon, winds from Lake Erie pushed the gas vapor into a mixed-use section of the city. Through catch basins in the street gutters, the natural gas descended into the sewer lines and mixed with combustible sewer gas. The resulting explosion launched manhole covers skyward as plumes of fire erupted from beneath the city. One manhole cover was found several miles away in the Glenville section of Cleveland.
The explosion of a second LNG tank trapped residents who had returned to their homes after the din of the first blast subsided. Survivors told newspaper reporters that the flames which traveled through sewers and up drains engulfed buildings in a matter of seconds.
According to a U.S. Bureau of Mines report, the Cleveland disaster destroyed 79 homes, 2 factories, 217 cars, and 7 trailers. Nearly 700 people were left homeless and over 130 were injured. The death toll reached 225, but could have been higher if the accident had occurred later in the day, after students and workers had returned home. Property damage estimates ranged between $7 million to $15 million.
The nation's first commercial LNG facility, the tank farm on Cleveland's East 61st Street, was completely destroyed.
| 
Re: October 20, 1944 - LNG Explosion Rocks Cleveland
