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This BLOG contains sensitive and sometimes graphic details, information and testimonials relating to burn injuries, burn victims, death, disaster survivors and PTSD. Reader discretion is advised.
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Welcome Ice Babies, I told you I’d be back. Today I have two guests on the line with me. I’m super giddy about this interview. I’m also quite nervous and I’ll tell you why. Don Cole. Don Cole was the Kingman journalist, who I cite in Episode 2 of We Need Ice, Explosion on the Railroad. He’s the crazy, courageous Kingman community member who was at the site of the BLEVE in ‘73, on an assignment for what he thought was to report on the tanker fire that had erupted due to a gas leak near the DOXOL gas plant. Then the BLEVE occurred just as Don was arriving to the scene, and as a civilian, Don ended up jumping into one of the rescue vehicles (that wasn’t yet completely engulfed in flames) and made several trips to and from the hospital transporting the burned and gravely injured men from the explosion site. His article from my Kingman Miner archives entitled, "Ambulance is Reporter’s Tool During the Fire," details his harrowing experience as a volunteer first-responder that day. Episode 2 is probably, arguably the most emotional and graphic episode of the series because of Don’s reporting, as well as his quick thinking and commitment to his community of Kingman Arizona. So, make sure you’re caught up on ALL the episodes prior to this one, of course, but, if you want to hear Don Cole’s original testimony – you’ll want to head back to Episode 2.
Now, Don Cole has since passed away. But my guests today are his dear wife, Gloria Cole and his sweet daughter, Mary Stock. They’re going to help me build on Don’s legacy and share some of their experiences from the time period of the 1973 Kingman, Arizona BLEVE.
So, let’s get into it.
………………………………………………
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "Thank you both so much for joining me, Gloria and Mary.
Mary last week, I received a contact form through WeNeedIce.com, which had been submitted by your son, Riley. And I want to read a part of that message.”
Riley says:
I was searching for more info on the event and saw your podcast. At the end of chapter two, you read an article written by my grandfather, Don Cole. It was cool to hear what he wrote about his experience there. We heard the story growing up and about what he did, though that's only part of the story. If you're interested in talking to my mom or grandma, I could ask them if they'd be comfortable talking about him and his experience.
Also, thanks for doing this podcast. I shared it with my family and my mom was teary eyed seeing that he was mentioned in this.
-Thanks, Riley.
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "Mary, what were you thinking when Riley told you there was this series about the Kingman BLEVE, which puts your dad, for all intents and purposes, as a main character?”
[MARY STOCK] "I think my first reaction was surprise because I have told the story so many times throughout the years to friends. I've had friends search for information and found nothing. Occasionally a newspaper article stating ‘10 year anniversary, 25th anniversary,’ etcetera. But for Riley to find your podcast with details was just marvelous and humbling and we are, we're very grateful that, that his story is part of your podcast."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "And can you tell me why you wanted to contribute to the podcast?"
[MARY STOCK] "In all honesty, my first reaction was ‘thanks, but no thanks.’ It's, it's something that's, like I said, I've, I've told this story so many times, but it's done in a matter of factly way. But I heard the episode where you read my dad's article, which I had never heard. We heard bits and pieces of that, but not in its entirety. So it was very emotional to hear the details that he outlined.
So my initial was 'NO, It's too emotional. It's too tender.' But that night I stayed up till 2am listening to your entire podcast. And at the end of it, I knew, I knew that number one, I wanted to do it. Number two, my dad would want me to do it."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "What are your memories growing up or raising a family in Kingman, Arizona, pre BLEVE, and Gloria, if you feel comfortable, I'd love for you to take the lead on this."
[GLORIA COLE] "Being a wife and mother, I didn't have to work at that time, and that day, as I recall, my youngest son, he was only two years old, he was taking a nap. And while he was napping, I was reading a book when the explosion happened. And we live about three or four miles from the railroad tracks. It rattled the windows in the house."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "Do you remember the sound? Because other witnesses described this roar, like a, like a jet airliner taking off and you said it rattled the windows."
[GLORIA COLE] "Yeah, I, I heard a boom too. Yeah, I did hear that boom. And of course, right away, I knew that it was an explosion. But I, I hadn't heard anything, you know, about what was going on. I did get up and go outside. I could see a black plume off in that direction, but I still didn't know what it was or what had happened."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "Mary, where were you? How old were you? What do you recall? Just about the initial KABOW."
[MARY STOCK] "I was 11. And where we lived, the street was like a dog bone, so it was a double cul-de-sac. I was at my friend's house who was on the corner of the entryway of that, and we were actually making up a dance to 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight.' I cannot hear that song without automatically going back to this very memory. So, as we were dancing, her curtains were open and across the street, there was another house with a large plate window. We heard the boom really loud, pictures actually fell off her wall, but in the window across the street, we could see the mushroom. And we both just looked at each other wide-eyed and ran outside and we spent probably 3 or 4 hours sitting on her cinder block fence, looking towards everything . The gas station caught fire, and you could just see the progress of the fire by the smoke. We could see, eventually, airplanes, but didn't really understand what was going on at that point."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "And of course, you didn't know that your father was there and, Gloria, you didn't know that your husband, Don was there."
[GLORIA COLE] "No. Well, I kind of figured he might be because he was a newspaper journalist. I knew he would be covering any kind of story like this. And well, it was kind of a sure bet because the newspaper office where he worked, the fire station was right next door. So anytime he was in the office and heard the fire bell go off, he would always jump in the car and follow them to wherever it was. So he was always available to find out what was going on anytime the fire truck was called out. But we didn't know for many, many hours later, what had happened to him at the explosion or what he was doing.
Mary, tell her about the time when you saw the car coming home."
[MARY STOCK] "I will. As we sat on the cinder block fence, my friend said, 'Look!, There’s your station wagon coming.' And so I started to hop down and I noticed it was not my dad driving the station wagon. So I ran over to their house, which was right next door to ours, and he was getting out. You know, I said, 'where's my dad?' He says, 'I don't know. I was just told to bring the car home.' And he got in another car and left. That's all we knew. We did not know for hours and hours why the car came home without my dad."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "And to put this into context, in the intro of our interview today, I sort of briefed the audience on the unbelievable role Don Cole played during the events and trauma following the BLEVE. A Kingman newspaper reporter who was at the scene with a pen and, presumably a pad of paper, Don ultimately hijacks a burning ambulance, a vehicle I'm sure he had never maneuvered before, to assist in getting these men to the hospital as quickly as possible.
Now, I recall Don went through this tragedy with a friend who actually died a couple of days after the BLEVE due to his burn injuries, Chris Sanders. Do you guys recall Don revealing anything about his time with Chris? Because my understanding is Chris assisted Don triage on-site and then helped Don with, like, the buttons and whatnot while driving the ambulance. Don wrote that Chris was so severely burned, he didn't know how Chris could even stay sane, but that Chris wanted everyone else helped before himself."
[GLORIA COLE] "Yes, he was a friend. In fact, a lot of the firemen were friends, which made it doubly hard for him, you know, to see his friends dead, or friends injured and burnt so badly.
Yeah, I don't know how he did it, but my husband was a man that had been in many death-defying situations before, so, I'm not surprised that he just got in and started helping. It's just so like him to do that."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "That one ridiculously selfless act made him a decorated hero in my book, but what was Don like? How would you describe your late husband, Gloria, and your father, Mary? And also what would he want to say about himself? What would he want us to note about Don Cole, the legacy?"
[GLORIA COLE] "Well, to be honest, he found it hard to talk about it. I got very little out of him about what had happened. I do recall him saying they needed more ice and that there was even going to be some brought in from, I think he said Las Vegas, to bring to the hospital.
What had happened to him when he arrived at the scene... He was following the fire truck but he got caught by a red light so he had to stop and wait. And then he finally got to the scene and he could see that a propane tank was venting and the firemen were there trying to cool it down.
There was about 15 firemen and a bunch of civilians too. And he parked the car and started to get out of the car. I assume just left the keys in the car. Just as he had stepped out of the car, that's when the explosion happened. So he was kind of protected by the door and the bulk of the car, from the flames and the concussion and everything. So when he stood up, then everything was in flames. And, he told me he could see people that had been burnt, but he didn't know who they were."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "In the article, he says they all looked alike, pretty much. They were all… charred."
The following is an excerpt from Don's published witness account of his experience at the BLEVE site on July 5th, 1973.
[FROM DON COLE'S ARTICLE, "AMBULANCE IS REPORTER'S TOOL DURING THE FIRE"] "It felt like the whole world was on fire. Everything was orange and hot, and I stayed behind the car for what felt like forever. I remember covering my arms, and face, and head from the heat. I dropped my camera. It was extremely hot. Then the heat died down and I looked up from behind the car. I had been just on the edge of the fireball that extended for maybe two or three square blocks, maybe more. There were men screaming and yelling everywhere. I pulled the car up and there was one man lying on the pavement screaming, ‘Help me, God. Help me, please’”
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "I'm assuming you both remember the aftermath of the BLEVE in Kingman, especially because it was marked with funerals and dedications and a lot of mourning. Would you like to elaborate on that time following the explosion?"
[GLORIA COLE] "Yeah, there were a lot of funerals. One of the firemen was a member of the church we attended, and I was friends with his mother, and that was really hard. I went to his funeral at the church, and that was, that was tough to do. But Don, as far as I know, he's always been brave, not recklessly brave, but brave. He was In Vietnam, fought in Vietnam. And also he was involved in the Algerian war in North Africa. He was with a group of Algerians and they were attacked and he was the only one that survived the attack."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "So, I mean, it's just his nature to run towards the fire?”
[GLORIA COLE] "Yes. Yeah, it is."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "If you could see me right now, I'm holding my heart, like, you know, that's a man you want on your side, right?"
[GLORIA COLE] "Exactly."
Remember the contact form submitted by Riley, Mary's son, Don Cole's grandson, which I read from in the introduction of this episode? He left me on a little cliffhanger, didn't he? He says something like, ‘Growing up, we heard the story about what my grandfather did on July 5th, 1973, but that's not the WHOLE story.'
Hmm. Cheeky little bugger knows how to keep your attention. What do you suppose he meant by that?
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "Now, prior to our interview today, Mary, we spoke briefly and you revealed something I think is really important to address about the BLEVE survivors and the long term effects of the blast and the burns. Don suffered greatly with health conditions after the BLEVE. What do you feel comfortable telling us about that?"
[MARY STOCK] "I could fill in details. I think because I was young, I didn't realize how sick he was. He left the newspaper probably about six months or so after this incident and became the Director of Emergency Services, a job that was most likely offered to him because of how he was in such a tragic emergency. I do just remember he didn't feel good. And then he went to the hospital. They thought he had ulcers. And it was not ulcers. But I think my mom probably knows better details on that."
[GLORIA COLE] "He began getting sick a lot and had a lot of abdominal pain, and it was just a long series of months and months of going to different doctors and trying to find out what was wrong with him. And finally, a local doctor referred him to an internist in Phoenix that would most likely be able to help him. They scheduled surgery, and the internist said it would just be exploratory. ‘I'm not going to go in and fix anything. I'm just gonna open you up and see if I see anything that's wrong, that looks damaged, that might be causing you this pain.'
When this surgeon got inside and was looking at all of his organs, all of them were misshapen and out of place. And he said he could hardly recognize or identify one organ from another. So it was determined, at that time, that because of the explosion, it had damaged all of his internal organs. The explosion was in 1973 and he passed in 1985. He was in pain for that whole length of time."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "How was his mental health? Did you see any changes in him beyond the the physical pain and the way that he was suffering after the BLEVE?"
[MARY STOCK] "There was, you know, a personality change. The pain was so intense. I knew that he was in pain, but I didn't know the WHY. And having read the article and hearing your podcast, the why was so apparent. It allowed us more grace and understanding of the pain that he was in, not just physically, but emotionally, mentally. You didn't receive counseling to get through that kind of pain. We took it and we just carried it. And so I think it was buried, but not so deep that it didn't affect the way he was."
[GLORIA COLE] "Because he was sick, he couldn't work and he lost the job in Kingman. We had no income. We were over our heads in medical debt. We decided to move from Kingman to Mesa, Arizona to be closer to better doctors and closer to the VA hospital so he could get treatment or care or whatever he needed from the VA hospital because we absolutely had no insurance by that time.
And because I qualified, I was given training by the state in office management or jobs. I learned to type, file, and do receptionist work and, you know, stuff like that. And it was also that I could work and support the family because Don could not. I was a high school dropout."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "She was very much an inspiration to me. I admired her because that was hard for her to be the full time earner in our family and then come home and still have to be Mom."
Wow, guys, let's recap a little bit on what Gloria and Mary have just told us… July 5th, 1973, Kingman, Arizona is literally shaken when a BLEVE occurs on the railroad. You know, that huge explosion which killed 12 men, 11 who were firefighters? That tragic event where Don Cole, true to his nature, ignored the danger to his own well being and ran towards the fire to save the lives of others? And then Don spends the next 12 years in excruciating pain, during which he learns that his courageous acts on July 5th, 1973, cost him greatly through debilitating physical symptoms and the worsening condition of his internal organs.
It's no wonder Gloria and Mary have bittersweet emotions regarding Don's BLEVE legacy, and I can't help but feel a little silly when I realize this interview has been nothing like what I expected. Here I am, almost with a small chip on my shoulder, producing this podcast and promoting it as a healing journey for both witnesses, survivors, and family members of. I saw today's interview as an opportunity for Gloria and Mary to memorialize their loved one and even brag on his bravery.
But Don Cole, too, was a victim of the 73 BLEVE. He didn't perish in the blast or days later from fatal burns. He suffered the rest of his years in chronic pain. His declining health left him out of work forcing Gloria to step up and make ends meet the best she could as she was thrust into the breadwinner role of the family.
After July 5th, 1973, and at the hands of the BLEVE, life was forever changed in the Cole household. I think it's important that I recognize that. But thankfully, all my intentions for this episode aren't lost because I also get the honor of recognizing Don the way I believe he should be remembered, which is even more apparent when I ask Gloria and Mary about Don's funeral.
"Wasn't his heroism during the 73 BLEVE referenced in his eulogy or obituary," I question?
They pretty much answer in unison, and my socks are knocked right off.
[GLORIA COLE] "I don't recall it being mentioned."
[MARY STOCK] "I don't either. I really don't think that he shared the details of the BLEVE, that day, and reading the details that he wrote, I can understand why that would be a tough thing to say and to know that your audience was going to hear and maybe not understand it as well as he would want it to be understood, perhaps in respect to the friends that died."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "Mary, you said something prior to this conversation that really filled my heart. You mentioned the podcast maybe being therapeutic. How do you feel about that now and when you were listening and as we're discussing it today?"
[MARY STOCK] "It was very therapeutic to hear and to cry, to have a really good cry. And my younger brother and my older brother both said the same thing. I sobbed through it. And I understood my dad so much. So yes, it has been very helpful for us to add a layer of respect and love for our dad."
[WE NEED ICE HOST, MEG MARAN] "I'll ask this question, which is a little self serving, but would you recommend other witnesses, survivors, and family members give it a shot, meaning to say, ‘Hey guys, if you're holding this in, you can reach out?’”
[MARY STOCK] "Without a doubt. Absolutely! Without a doubt. I don't think it would matter which side you're on, whether you lost a parent, a spouse... Knowing what they sacrificed in order for the, the training that's come out of this, the growth that's come out of this. For me, it's been just a small part of knowing my dad made a difference. I would hope that others listening know that my dad made a difference. But also I think listening to your podcast and the personal stories that have been told, they can also know that their loved one was cared for... That somebody jumped in because they saw that they needed help. And like my mom said, my dad was friends with each of them. And so, they were carried, and taken care of by a friend."
Pretty powerful, right? If you are a survivor of a Kingman BLEVE victim, take comfort in knowing that in the dark hours of, and following the event, your loved ones were cared for by a FRIEND. I couldn't have concluded this interview and podcast episode better myself.
I want to send the sincerest of Thank Yous to Gloria Cole and Mary Stock for opening up to me and to my audience. I'm so grateful, not only for their participation today, but for the bond we've formed and for the friendships, I firmly believe I've made in them both, which will carry on because we understand that discussions around tragic events like the 1973 Kingman, Arizona, BLEVE can be healthy and healing.
I extend an invitation to anyone listening with a connection to the 73 BLEVE, whether a witness, survivor, or loved one of either. Contact me and help me expand the reach of this unbelievable, historical, true story, as well as the people who were involved. I hope to talk to you soon. Until next time.
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