Bath School disaster | |
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![]() Bath Consolidated School after the bombing | |
Location | Bath Charter Township, Michigan, U.S. |
Coordinates | 42°49′00″N 84°26′57″W / 42.81667°N 84.44917°W |
Date | May 18, 1927 |
Target | Bath Consolidated School, house and farm |
Attack type | |
Weapons | Explosives: |
Deaths | 45 (including the perpetrator)[a] |
Injured | 58 |
Perpetrator | Andrew Philip Kehoe |
Motive | Inconclusive[b] |
The Bath School disaster, also known as the Bath School massacre,[c] was a series of violent attacks perpetrated by Andrew Kehoe upon the Bath Consolidated School in Bath Charter Township, Michigan, United States, on May 18, 1927. The attacks killed 38 children and 6 adults, and injured at least 58 other people. Prior to the explosions at the school, Kehoe had murdered his wife, Nellie Price Kehoe, and firebombed his farm. Arriving at the site of the school explosion, Kehoe died when he set off explosives concealed in his truck.
Kehoe, the 55-year-old school board treasurer, was angered by increased taxes and his defeat in the April 5, 1926, election for township clerk. It was thought by locals that he planned his "murderous revenge" following this public defeat. Kehoe had a reputation for being difficult, on the school board and in personal dealings. In addition, he was notified in June 1926 that his mortgage was going to be foreclosed. For much of the next year, Kehoe purchased explosives and secretly hid them on his property and under the school.
On the day of the disaster, Kehoe set off explosions at his farmstead and at the Bath Consolidated School, destroying his farm and ripping through the north wing of the school. As rescue efforts began, Kehoe drove up to the schoolyard in his shrapnel-filled truck and triggered a second explosion, killing himself and four others, as well as injuring bystanders.
During the rescue and recovery efforts, searchers discovered a further 500 pounds (230 kg) of explosives under the south wing of the school that had been set to go off simultaneously with the initial explosion. Kehoe had apparently intended to destroy the entire school, and everyone in it.
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was invoked but never defined (see the help page).when the destructive effects of natural or man-made forces ... Disasters are divided into 2 basic groups: natural and man-made
Man-made disasters are extreme hazardous events that are caused by human beings.