WHITE HALL -- The two-minute fire that halted arms destruction at the Pine Bluff Arsenal for two days last week occurred while an M55 rocket loaded with GB nerve agent was being sheared, arsenal spokesman Raini Wright said Wednesday.

The cause of the May 11 fire has yet to be determined, but sections 6 and 7, which housed the rocket's propellant motor, was where it happened, Wright said.

The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency did not notify the public of the incident until Tuesday, six days later.

"This was something that was expected," Wright said, noting the volatility of arms destruction. "But there was no danger to the workers or to the environment. We didn't see an immediate need to release the information."

The arsenal or the contractor handling the weapons incineration did contact elected officials quickly. U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, DArk., received a phone call from contractor Washington Group International the next morning, but he said Wednesday that a delay in notifying the public can allow fear-inducing rumors to spread.

"Maybe they didn't want to incite fear in the public if no chemicals were released, but this is a small community and, instead of letting rumors dictate what happened, I think they would want to notify the public that nothing bad happened," Ross said.

The fire occurred in an explosive-containment room that was reinforced with 24 inches of steel and concrete, Wright said. Staff noticed the fire about the same time that an emergency sprinkler system was activated. No injuries were reported.

"The sprinkler system put out the fire," Wright said.

"I was a little surprised it wasn't made known earlier," U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor said Wednesday. "I'm going to check into exactly what the rationale was there. But generally, I think they owe it to the community to tell the public when things like this happen."

Mayor James Morgan of White Hall said the arsenal notified him almost immediately, but he also said it was the first time in his 10 1/2 years as mayor that the arsenal didn’t send out a news release by the following day.

"They've done it for years on what we call leakers -- when there's been something leaking in those igloos," Morgan said. "They've always been good about it, and since they opened up [the chemical weapons incineration process] they have had one or two little incidents. They don't hide anything from us."

Mayor Carl Redus of Pine Bluff, whose father worked at the arsenal for 34 years, said the local communities have had a special relationship with the arsenal since it opened in 1941 and he trusts it to quickly notify the public if there were ever a real emergency.

"I/m sure that, had the situation represented some kind of imminent danger to anyone, they would have notified the public," he said. "And while vigilance and caution are necessary when dealing with these dangerous blister and nerve agents, I don't think they need to notify the public of every operational hiccup that doesn't pose a danger to the public."

A damaged blade and sensor wiring were replaced and arms destruction at the arsenal resumed Friday. The Army in March started destroying chemical weapons that had been stored at the arsenal, beginning in 1945.

Prior to the start of destruction, the arsenal had 3,850 tons of chemical agents at the site, or 12 percent of the U.S. Army's original chemical-weapons stockpile. The incineration was undertaken to comply with an international treaty.

The arsenal is the fifth in the country to begin incineration of the military's chemical weapons.

Information for this article was contributed by Richard Massey of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and David Hammer of The Associated Press.