Around 11:00 a.m. on December 5, 1957, a natural gas leak under Berry’s Pharmacy caused an explosion that destroyed four buildings and damaged several others in Villa Rica’s downtown. The explosion killed twelve and injured twenty. The tragedy highlighted the need for both an organized local emergency response unit and the use of odor in the natural gas supply. The civil defense unit that resulted became a model for west Georgia. Ensuing litigation placed a considerable financial burden on the city, suppressing economic development for years. In terms of injury and loss of life, the explosion remains the most catastrophic event in Carroll County history.
Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, City of Villa Rica, and Villa Rica Downtown Development Authority there is a marker and on Dec 5 the town stops and remembers that fateful day .
Kids today do not know what it is like to have to crawl under your desk in a silly fear factor used on we kids of the fifties called Duck and Cover. We were so small we naturally ducked and covered and it was not the test, We were 8 miles east but windows shook and one could feel the building rock as the snow peppered down.
I had two doctor uncles working around the clock until victims were moved to Atlanta hospitals and hearses carried many as there were not many ambulances in those days. Prisoners were let go from jails to uncover bodies from the rubble. Ham radios and backroads were traveled as the main highway from Atlanta to Birmingham in this area was impassable. I remember being so afraid after hearing way too much but we all knew someone who was killed. Much of my family lived in this small mill town. My family was in the medical field and everyone was caring c for the wounded.
I remember seeing the smoke for days. I remember the cold feeling and look in our community's eyes. I remember kids did not talk but heard plenty, I remember that day like yesterday. There was plenty of Christmas shopping going on that day and I remember Christmas always getting a little sad around the 5th, Truth be known, we all probably suffer from ptsd over just this one thing without anything else in our lives like constant fear of the communists are going to nuke us.
I was just a baby at 7 and scared most of the time after that explosion every time we went under our desks afraid of the communist nuclear bombs. I know our parents and other adults were not very understanding because no one talked to us to calm fears in our community or in the one that just blew up 8 miles westward. I guess they just expected we kids to just roll with the flow. They had no clue how it would affect us. I hate when West runs his mouth about dems being communists as I spent most of my childhood under a desk and afraid of explosions. I know it affected us as it is 4 in the morning in April 2012, me in Florida and I just woke up sick to my stomach after dreaming about the Villa Rica explosion and the mind is a funny thing isn't it?
This was a very devastating day and people have got to remember there was no 911. A lot of telephone lines above ground, no computers,
mostly party lines, kids walking to school though town,
gas heat and wood. No central anything. One main highway that was closed and covered with debris.
Civil defense was immediately called and further research said that prisoners were instrumental in recovering the dead and injured, along with kids even through warned, running to the site trying to help people.
I remember that winter and winters back then were very cold. Much more like New York winters now. (Climate warming has changed all of the temps) but it was not unusal at all to have snowfall or ice and temps remaining in the 20's and 30's along with lights going out a lot.
The little village town depended on each other as it was near impossible to get help into that area. There was one man who thought very clearly and called the Civil Defense on a ham radio I heard, and was trying to get some help from all over the state. The Red Cross and Salvation Army eventually made it in, after the
Guard was called in. This was Christmas time and
I got so involved in the story in 09 I went up to Berrys Drug store and stood at the marker and peeped inside the
pharmacy that is replicated including a soda fountain.
They serve food now. It no longer is a drug store. There were pictures on the wall and I heard a lady from my hometown is writing a book on it. Did you ever think about the WWII vets and Korea had just been 4 years past , what effect it had on them?
In 2010 I did write President Obama and ask him to remember some of the heros in that town for their responses in that time. They saved lives. It was also the hometown of Thomas A Dorsey, the father of gospel who resided in Chicago but was affected by this tragedy as well. I never got a response. I probably should write him again. I still think those people need more than a little plaque on the street corner.
I guess I should share why this explosion is
so important. In 1937 there was a school explosion
in Texas to some children (God Bless them) and it was
a very well to do school. The big oil and gas companies were sued and even Walter Cronkite reported on that incident. The parents who were not poor by any means, and the history tells very educated, wanted an odor to be put into the odorless substance. There was some added but not that much from what I can research.It was basically a faint smell, hardly noticeable. The suit brought on to the Texas gas companies resulted in a failure due to get this Lack of evidence. 300 dead kids and Lack of evidence.
Twenty years later a town blows up and people were confused as if there was a gas leak or not. There definately was and this explosion according to wikepedia under Villa Rica explosion re opened the talks of a strong odor to be added to gas. Which did happen
This is my class back then. I am the 2nd child in the first row furthest from the teacher.
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