Plankinton residents to honor, mourn victims of 2000 explosion

• Image

A firefighter works at the scene of the Plankinton school explosion in this Nov. 17, 2000, photo. Plankinton residents will remember the fatal incident with a ceremony today. (Republic file photo)

Talk about it

PLANKINTON — Ten years ago today, a propane explosion destroyed the Plankinton school and changed the community and school district.

It forever altered the lives of family members of the two men who died in the explosion and the Plankinton firefighter who was injured.

Today, the Plankinton School District Student Council will commemorate the event with a ceremony at 2 p.m. at the current school. The community is invited.

Kathy Guindon, student council adviser for four years and administrative assistant for 30 years, said this is the first event to mark the anniversary of the school explosion.

“We don’t want to offend anybody, but we don’t want to let it go by,” she said. “I think we have grown lots closer as a community. It’s one of those adversities we have overcome.”

The explosion claimed the lives of Chief Executive Officer Dave Grode and custodian Pat Phillips and injured Plankinton firefighter John Harless.

Then-State Fire Marshal Dan Carlson said the explosion was caused by propane that leaked from a malfunctioning valve while the 250-gallon tank was being filled. The tank fed propane to the school’s kitchen area, with vapors migrating into other parts of the school.

In January 2005, Dakota Fire Insurance Co. settled out of court with four companies that it said were responsible for the explosion, according to The Associated Press.

Dakota Fire, of Bismarck, N.D., had filed a federal lawsuit against Aurora Cooperative Oil Co., Don Weich Oil Co., Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives and Country Energy and alleged that they were negligent in the incident, AP said.

Plankinton opened a new $5.5 million school in February 2003 that was financed by $2.5 million in insurance money, a $2 million bond issue, capital outlay funds and donations.

Guindon said students and staff will walk or travel by bus today, depending on the weather, to the old school site in the 100 block of North Campbell Street.

A small brick marquee from the old school remains on the site, where two wreaths will be hung in memory of Grode and Phillips. The old school’s bell is displayed at the front of the current school along Highway 16.

Participants will circle the block and have a moment of silent reflection.

“We are hoping to circle the entire block with luminarias and hands held around the block,” Guindon said.

A short program will follow at Dave Grode-Pat Phillips Memorial Gymnasium. Speakers include J.P. Studeny, then-school board president, and Chris Hill, student council president in 2000-01.

Video footage of the event will be shown on a television in the gym after the program, with memorabilia set out on a few tables. Tours of the current school will be given upon request. Refreshments also will be served.

Some of the people who responded to the incident or were at the school prior to the explosion have since died.

Then-Fire Chief Dwight Schamber died in October 2003. Wrestling coach Charles Geppert, who got his athletes out of the building after wrestling practice ended about 6 p.m., died in July 2007.

Aurora County Sheriff David Fink recalled that Schamber was a take-charge, organized person.

“We were glad to have him,” Fink said of Schamber. “He knew what needed to be done.”

Fink, who is an emergency medical technician with Plankinton Ambulance, said he gave life support at the scene initially and assisted EMTs with preparing patients to be loaded into an ambulance. Then he helped coordinate assistance from various fire departments with Schamber and security for the area.

As the fifth-grade Drug Abuse Resistance Education instructor, Fink said law enforcement around the state donated sports equipment, such as basketballs and soccer balls, to the program.

The longtime sheriff said he thought Plankinton had recovered well since the incident. A new school was built, and new homes sprung up around it. New families came to town.

Those injured in the blast or family members of the victims have carved different paths in the past 10 years.

Carol Grode-Hanks now lives in Mitchell, where she served as registrar at Mitchell Technical Institute until last July. She is now coordinator of curriculum design and campus management systems.

She sought a fresh start and more time to be with her youngest daughter, Emily, now a Mitchell senior, when they moved in June 2002. Yet the mother still wanted to be close to friends in Plankinton.

As for the challenge to move on, Grode-Hanks said grief is a journey that one must go through and support systems are vital.

“Having the children at home, Matt and Emily, forces you to get up and face each day and move on,” Grode-Hanks said.

She became involved in Area Community Theater and Kiwanis Club.

Grode-Hanks, 47, now has a blended family after marrying her husband, Eric, in 2008. They met after his wife, Roberta, died in a traffic accident.

Grode-Hanks gained two stepchildren. In the past 10 years, two of her four children have married, and her fourth grandchild is due in April.

“I’ve been blessed twice. We don’t ever take life for granted,” she said. “You have to be real accepting of life and go with the happiness and sadness.”

The toughest days are when her children experience milestones, such as a wedding, new baby or play performance — moments that their father is missing.

“I cry because he’s not there,” she said.

But Grode-Hanks finds solace in knowing that her children have inherited her late husband’s good qualities.

“Dave was a remarkable man,” she said. “He was the king of patience. He had this aura about him. He believed in his students. He believed in his family. He believed in life.”

Harless, of Tripp, who suffered a back injury and spent six to eight months recovering, decided to leave his mechanic days behind and pursue a dream of becoming a teacher.

After student teaching at Plankinton and earning his degree from Dakota Wesleyan University in 2006, he found a job teaching fifth through eighth grade at Clearfield Colony for Tripp-Delmont School District. He teaches in the former Belford School building that used to sit north of Plankinton.

Harless, 47, married Bridget Pergeson in 2004. In addition to his three daughters, his family grew to include three stepchildren and a step-granddaughter. He is an emergency medical technician for Tripp Ambulance.

He said he is glad to hear that an event is taking place to honor those who died.

“I am thankful I didn’t lose my life,” Harless said. “I’d say I’d be right up there with the people who wish they could go back and change time if possible.”

Tags: plankinton school, news, plankinton, memorial, fccnetwork