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A fire that broke out at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal
Facility on Wednesday was the third fire at a U.S. chemical weapons processing
facility in a little over a month and a half.
A rocket being processed at the Umatilla, Ore., facility was
being sheared in one of the facility's two explosive containment rooms at
about 1:30 p.m. when it caught fire.
The fire occurred during the fifth of seven shears. The rocket
had been drained of nerve agent, and no one was injured. Project General
Manager Doug Hamrick released a statement saying "little, if any," damage
was done to the machinery.
Processing has stopped in the room where the fire occurred,
but is continuing in the other room.
Wednesday's fire was instantaneous and lasted two minutes,
said Mary Binder, a spokeswoman for the facility. Earlier fires have tended
to start more slowly and extinguish more rapidly.
"It's being looked at," Binder said. "We take each (fire)
individually."
Wednesday's fire resembled four earlier fires at the facility,
in April, May and July. Those were quickly extinguished, but the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality ordered processing halted from mid-May to early
June while the fires were investigated.
"This is an unusual event," said Sue Oliver, senior hazardous-waste
specialist with the Oregon DEQ. "We were concerned they were becoming almost
routine there last spring, which is why we said, 'Everyone, let's hold for
awhile.'"
As a result of the discussions, a recovery plan is forwarded
to DEQ by the facility after such events.
"They have been following the plan and updated us several
times through the day (Wednesday)," Oliver said. "Really, it was to avoid
us shutting them down in the future."
Before Wednesday's fire, the facility had destroyed 20,000
rockets without incident.
Studies of the rockets over the summer suggested that propellant
in the rocket may be the cause of the Umatilla fires and similar fires at
the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Pine Bluff, Ark. The studies
are still ongoing. All four Umatilla fires began when machines made the fifth
shear into a rocket. That shear cuts the section where the propellant is
stored. Binder said it is too early in the investigation to say whether Wednesday�s
fire was related to the earlier ones.
"There are similarities, and certainly the fire at the fifth
shear is similar," Binder said. "Whether the cause is the same, I can't answer
that."
Fires broke out in the explosive containment room at Pine Bluff on Nov. 12
and Nov. 29 in what officials called minor events. Processing has resumed
at that facility. |
