BELLINGHAM, Wash. — In a new song, Bellingham band Death Cab for Cutie pays tribute to the three children who died in the 1999 explosion in Whatcom Creek.

A gas pipeline operated by the Olympic Pipeline Company exploded in Whatcom Falls Park on June 10th, 1999, injuring 8 people and killing 3 children who were fishing and playing in the area.

Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard told Rolling Stone that the explosion was a tragedy that affected him while the band was living in Bellingham and that after all these years he felt it was worthy of its own folk song.

Gibbard describes the event in a somber song called “Kids in 99,” part of an EP that comes out in September.

Last May, Death Cab along with the Bellingham-based duo Odesza played a show at Civic Stadium as part of WWU’s alumni weekend.