(This is a story from December 24, 1958 Brownfield News)
Separate funerals were to be held today for three Brownfield volunteer firemen who died Monday night in the explosion of a butane-laden transport. They are James Bryant Ray, 40 of 1304 East Main and Manager of the Keystone Fleming Butane, Wayland (Mont) Parker, 43, of 721 East Cardwell, owner of Parker Brothers Fertilizer, and Jim Coston Cousineau of 714 East Main, longtime city employee and Fire Marshal.
A fourth fatality of the accident was Ruben Johnson, 40 of Lubbock who was a driver for Plains Gas, Inc. In addition to the fatalities, an estimated 160 residents suffered injuries and burns, ranging from minor to critical. Some 16 are still being treated in the Terry County Hospital. Other area hospitals are treating 12 more victims. Site of the explosion was immediately in front of the Bonham 66 Station at the intersection of Seagraves Road and Eighth Street.
After careful study, the Brownfield Police have reached the following conclusions concerning the crash of the butane truck and a pick-up: Johnson had taken on a load of butane in New Mexico and was returning to Lubbock. He had nearly reached the city limits on the Seagraves Road when the red pick-up entered the main road from a service road, coming in from the south. For reasons still unexplained, the collision occurred just as the smaller truck managed to start moving in the same direction as the butane truck. The transport smashed the right rear end of the pick-up, flipping it over.
From the police records: At 10:45 p.m. Police Chief James Tippit began his run to the scene after getting a radio call. An unidentified witness turned in the alarm for a fire truck, ambulance and police. At about 10:48, Tippit arrived at the scene to find one man lying prone beside the pick-up, another standing in a dazed condition beside it, the transport driver trapped inside the vehicle, and another man walking across the highway from the service station. Said Tippit: “Some 10 to 20 minutes later, there were from 200 – 300 person gathered in the immediate vicinity. By this time, highway patrolmen and sheriff’s men had arrived and were pleading, pushing and persuading the crowd to get away from the danger which we knew was there. At 11:05 p.m., the explosion came.”
Time of death for all three Brownfield victims is listed on official death certificates as 11:05 p.m. Driver of the pick-up was B.G. Campbell. His passenger was George Timmons, both of Andrews, where Campbell is in the Andrews County Hospital. Eyewitnesses, including Chief Tippit, have explained that Ray, Parker, and Cousineau were standing nearest to the butane truck involved in a discussion of how to extract the driver, Johnson. A previous smaller explosion of the gasoline tank had set the vehicle afire. The trio of firemen died instantly. Johnson’s body was not taken from the remains of his truck until early daylight on Tuesday. At least 200 officers combed the area for several hundred yards to the southeast and west during the night. Cousineau was found some distance from the highway. The search was made carefully again after daybreak.
Most of the city’s business firms will be closed from 2 p.m. today as a memorial observance for the dead firemen.
A corps of volunteer women are assisting the staff at the Terry County Hospital to feed, write for, and run errands for the victims there.
Officers, some 200 strong, gathered quickly here from Lubbock, Snyder, San Angelo, Morton, Denver City, Littlefield, Garden City, Post, Tahoka, Seagraves, and New Mexico. Electric power was restored by Southwestern Public Service of Lubbock, whose crewmen completed the vast job and turned back the facilities to Brownfield men at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Patrolling of the downtown business district where hundreds of huge panes of glass were shattered in store fronts, was undertaken by Lubbock Police and Detectives. Tahoka firemen stood by most of Tuesday so that the Brownfield firemen could rest.
Said Phillip Thompsaon of 108 Seagraves Road, who is a volunteer fireman, “There were several hundred people standing on the north side of the highway, all within 100 feet of the tank truck. We, about 20 firemen, were on the south side, some 50 feet from the truck. Suddenly there was an awful roar and it seemed like the whole sky was on fire. I was knocked down, then I was up and running. I don’t know where, just running. A boy passed me running hard, his clothes on fire. I jerked off some of the clothing and put out the fire. There were others whose clothes were burning. I must have put out five or six of them.”
Still in the Terry County Hospital is Lee Loftis, who was burned severely, not by the explosion so much as by his efforts to push persons whose clothes were on fire in to the sand and roll them and beat out the blaze.
Also in the hospital is Frank Szydloski of 802 East Tate, volunteer fireman who was blown, rolled, and pushed by the concussion wave an estimated 300 hundred feet down the highway. While still more than 100 yards from the explosion site, Dale George of 803 East Lons had his hair and jacket to catch fire.
One man standing on the porch of the American Legion Hall suffered burns on his hands and ears. He was some 100 yards from the blast. Two women sitting in their home in the 400 block of Tahoka Highway were lifted from their chairs and deposited on the floor by the concussion. A cake in the kitchen of a neighbor slid from the table and crashed to the floor.
It was quite a tragedy for the Brownfield and Terry County community. One that has long been remembered by those alive during that time. For many, many years, you could still feel the depression in the highway were the explosion occurred, even after it had been resurfaced.
This is an interesting story and it also shows how much danger our firefighters can face when they go out on a call. It is also a good reminder for citizens to stay away when accidents occur. You never know what might happen.
