The Explosion that Shook East Canton in 1978
by Traci Ross Skipper
It was the morning of Saturday, November 11, 1978, in the small town of East Canton. Four days post-election day. The town’s fire levy passed but the Osnaburg road levy did not fare so well. U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula easily won his bid for a fourth term in Congress garnering 78% of the votes. Meanwhile, in two cities west, Canton and Massillon football fans geared up for the 83rd rivalry game between the Bulldogs and the Tigers. The local transit RTA (now known as SARTA) was providing transportation to Massillon’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium for Canton residents to attend the game. The cost to ride from Canton to Massillon would be 25 cents each way. The weather that day was a crisp, chilly 52 degrees.
Richard Miller, 14-year-old East Canton resident, woke up the morning of Saturday, November 11th. He had plans to meet up with his friend, 16-year-old Michael Estep later in the day.
I was an eight-year-old third grader when the accident happened. Richard lived on Ranowsky Ct. with his parents and his sister in a ranch home with an attached garage. In fact, the majority of houses on Ranowsky Ct. are of a similar style. Michael lived on Noble Street in a 4-unit apartment building. The apartments were, and still are, a cluster of rentals situated between Noble Street and the East Canton park and baseball fields.
If you lived back on Ranowsky, Cedar or Third Streets in East Canton, you knew that the easiest way to get to the parks–or to your friends that lived in the apartments–was to use the cut-thru situated at the dead end of Third Street. There is still a well-worn path there. The path would cross over a long stretch of water that ran alongside the park. Fortunately, you didn’t have to jump the water to get to the other side. Crossing over without risking being soaked was made possible only because of the installation of a plastic black culvert at one section of the stream. When I discovered this water for the first time, I was fascinated with a plant growing in the water. Hundreds of these plants. They had tall leaves with a cigar-shaped flower in the center. I was amused to learn they were called cattails. Then, someone nearly traumatized me by squeezing a mature cattail and thousands of white fibers, microscopic tiny seeds, discharged into the air. I never looked at a cat nor its tail the same again.
Richard left to meet his friend Michael. As I said, Michael lived in one of the many apartment buildings on Noble Street. His apartment building was directly across from Kress IGA Foodliner. The grocery store, called Kress’s for short, was a landmark in East Canton from 1937 to 2010. It was one of those rare places where the owner would give families grocery on credit. And by credit, I mean your mom or dad could write a post-dated check and Mr. Kress would agree to not cash it till their payday. And what kid hadn’t gotten yelled at for climbing the tall bundles of cardboard near the receiving dock of the store? They were always so tempting. The customers filled their carts that Saturday with sale items from the weekly ad. Maxwell House Coffee—1 lb. container for $2.49. Cheer Laundry Detergent—49 oz. box for $1.29. Three cans of green beans or IGA fancy applesauce for .99 cents. Busy shoppers that were unsuspecting of the tragedy that was going to evolve within the hour.
Michael and Richard met as planned. They began to walk west on Noble Street. They crossed Werley Road and Hartford Street until they came to the next intersection at High Street. They went up High Street—it also came to a dead end. At the dead end were a line of trees and a split rail fence. Both giving a subtle message that this was an off-limits area. The boys disregarded the message as they climbed the split rail fence with ease and pushed past the tree branches. On the other side was their destination. Four crude oil storage tanks adjacent to one another and connected by catwalks. Each tank had a diameter of ten feet and housed 100 barrels of oil. There was no protective fence around the perimeter of the tanks—only a shallow dike in case of an oil overflow. The boys ascended the fifteen metal stairs leading to the top of one of the tanks disregarding the warning signs posted on the tanks:
No trespassing
No open flames
No smoking
Danger
Do Not Enter Confined Space
Permit Required
At approximately 1:08 p.m., the tank that Richard and Michael were standing on exploded. The initial explosion ripped the top off the tank and caused an adjacent tank to burst into flames. The two other tanks were miraculously unaffected. The two explosions occurred almost simultaneously. The force of the explosion hurled Michael about 150 yards and Richard was found about 40 yards from the blast. Fire Department Chief Richard Stauffer, early on, stated that the cause of the explosion was ‘undetermined’. He added the possibility that one of the boys struck a match. One of the first persons on the scene alluded to ‘smoking cigarettes’ and another mentioned there was a tin of chewing tobacco and a pack of cigarettes in one of the youth’s pockets.
The shallow dike surrounding the remaining two tanks was no match for the nearly 150 gallons of crude oil that was pouring into neighboring yards and storm sewers. The boys were rushed to Aultman Hospital. East Canton residents were calling friends and standing outside talking with neighbors speculating what caused the explosion. This was 1978—long before internet, Ring doorbells and Crime Watch Facebook pages. The telephone and face-to-face conversations were the normal modes for communication and information gathering. At 1:59 p.m., a mere 51 minutes after the explosion, Michael was dead on arrival at the hospital. His companion, Richard, died later. The damage to the oil tank equipment was estimated at $8,000. However, the leaking oil caused considerable property damage to surrounding homes and a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was called the next day to assess the threat posed by the oil in the sewer pipes and how to alleviate it. The drinking water was not affected by the blast.
I will never forget that day in 1978. The oddity of hearing an explosion of such a magnitude. The fear that there were more to follow. The grieving families. This memory was triggered by the tragedy that occurred on Bonnet Place NE in Canton last week.
**The Massillon Tigers won the 83rd high school football classic against the Pups that day. Massillon’s quarterback Brent Offenbecher led the Tigers to a 13-10 victory in front of 21,592 fans at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
**Less than a year later, in July of 1979, the families of the boys sued the company that owned the oil tanks. Michael’s family was demanding $500,000 and Richard’s family $503,200. The lawsuit claimed the company was negligent in operation and management of the equipment as there was no protective fence surrounding the oil tanks. Fire and police officials had not turned up positive evidence as to the cause of the explosion. Likewise, there was no indication that tank was defective.
**Fire Chief Richard Stauffer served on the East Canton/Osnaburg Township Fire Department for 38 years — 28 of those as Chief.
**Picture is not from the actual explosion site, but another oil tank located on Berger Street in East Canton (for reference).