‘In a moment they were gone ....’ Death Cab’s tribute to pipeline explosion victims

Three kids died in the Olympic Pipeline explosion in Bellingham in 1999. Twenty years later, the band Death Cab for Cutie is paying tribute to them with a new song.

The song, titled “Kids in ‘99,” opens with the lyrics: “Thinking ‘bout those kids. Thinking ‘bout those kids back in ‘99. Gas leaking in the creek, a firecracker then a spark. In a moment they were gone... Gone... Gone... Gone...”

The June 10, 1999, disaster claimed the lives of Bellingham residents Wade King and Stephen Tsiorvas, both 10, and Liam Wood, 18.

Death Cab for Cutie formed in 1997 while lead-singer Ben Gibbard and the other band members were attending Western Washington University in Bellingham.

“The Olympic Pipeline explosion in 1999 was a tragedy that really affected me while we were living in Bellingham,” said Gibbard in a press release. “After all these years, I felt it was worthy of its own folk song.”

The song is first the band has shared from its upcoming “The Blue EP,” which debuts Sept. 6, 2019.

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