Friday, July 11, 2008
This Day in the History of Close Calls
On this day in 1978, a truck full of liquid natural gas crashed in the sunny, German tourist filled town of San Carlos de la Rapita, Spain, on the Mediterranean coast about halfway between Barcelona and Valencia. By chance, I stayed a night just off the beach in that town very near the crash site in August, 1972. I have an excellent story from that night which I will soon tell if I haven't already. The story from 1978 is not as happy. There were about 800 people below the highway and everyone was standing around in bathing suits when the truck came down the hill after the crash and exploded. The liquid gas evaporated explosively and ignited and 215 were burned to death with hundreds of others horribly burned.
Whew, not exactly close, but a terrible fate avoided. That counts, I think.
Labels: Personal History; San Carlos de la Rapita, Spain
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 12:42 PM 
