🏚️Background

This is a true story. This incident happened in the city of Beatrice, located in Gage County, Nebraska, 40 miles south of Lincoln on the Big Blue River.

💥The Explosion

At 7:27 p.m. on Wednesday, March 1, 1950, the church building exploded in what was believed to be a natural gas explosion. The explosion should have resulted in severe injury or fatality to the 15 members of the church choir, who usually met at 7:25 p.m. on Wednesdays for practice. However, by lucky coincidence, no one was in the building when it exploded – every one of the 15 members was late for one reason or another:

⏰Reasons for Being Late

• The pastor (who lit the furnace that exploded but had returned home) and his wife and daughter were late, as the daughter's dress was soiled and the wife was ironing another.
• One choir member, a high-school sophomore, was late due to problems with her geometry homework.
• Two members, sisters, were late as their car would not start, and their alternate ride was the member with the geometry problem.
• Another member and her daughter were late as she had to attend to matters at her mother's house before arriving.
• Yet another member was working on an important letter.
• One member waited until the last minute before leaving due to the cold weather.
• Another member, taking care of his two sons, was delayed and did not realize until the last minute he was late.
• The pianist had planned to arrive 30 minutes early but fell asleep after dinner, which caused her and her mother (the choir director) to be late.
• Two other members, high-school students, were late as one wanted to catch the end of a radio program, and the other waited for her as they customarily went together to practice.

📺Media Coverage

The story was a featured segment on the American television series Unsolved Mysteries.

📖Source

Source: Wikipedia