PROBE TARGETS FIRE CAUSE: INVESTIGATORS EXPECTED TODAY AT PB ARSENAL

By Wilson Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Wednesday,  June 8, 2005 

Army officials are investigating the cause of Monday's fire that destroyed a Pine Bluff Arsenal warehouse and more than 7,500 phosphorous canisters.

Meanwhile, water and air samples were collected from the surrounding area and sent to an independent laboratory for testing, said Lt. Col. Searless Hathaway, acting commander of the Arsenal.

So far, results are pending, she said, and an investigation team is expected to arrive at the base today.

On Monday, state and federal agencies were contacted to assist in the investigation, according to Raini Wright, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency.

Wright would not give the name of the private contracting group hired because the Arsenal didn't have enough information collected to release to the public, she said.

Arsenal officials also asked for the Army Materiel Command's help with the investigation.

Meanwhile, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality are also expected to do their own studies, officials said.

ADEQ employees were already on the base Monday.

According to an ADEQ spokesman, the department is waiting to review studies being done by private contractors the Arsenal has hired to examine the effects that the blaze and phosphorus might have had on the environment.

White phosphorus can be a potentially harmful chemical if directly inhaled, said Doug Szenher, an ADEQ spokesman.

"There is no immediate danger to the public unless they are exposed to the fire's smoke for a long period of time," Hathaway said in a statement issued Monday night. "If area residents experience symptoms such as watery eyes, sore throat, coughing or difficulty breathing, they should immediately seek medical attention."

Since the fire, no one with those symptoms complaining about white phosphorus had come into Jefferson Regional Medical Center's emergency room, said hospital spokeswoman Lisa Rowland.

On Monday, white, hazy clouds reached to the Arkansas River but never went across the water, Hathaway said. But some residents said the smoke went over the river toward England.

The blaze destroyed a World War II-era warehouse and more than 7,500 canisters of white phosphorous housed in it.

Produced on site, the Arsenal uses the chemical in smoke screen grenades and in incendiary devices for the Army, Hathaway said.

The phosphorous was being stored in canister containers and not in explosive rounds, she said.

The monetary loss of the warehouse and canisters is "still being assessed," Wright said, as is the way the Arsenal stores and handles its supplies of white phosphorus.

During a press conference Monday, Hathaway said she assumed the white phosphorus caught fire itself.

When reacting to oxygen, the chemical can "easily" catch fire "at temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above room temperature," according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Officials at the Arsenal have no plans to increase production of the substance after the fire, Wright said.

"Operations will remain the same," she said, adding that the loss "will not have an impact on our mission to supply ammunition for the war fighter."

The Arsenal is "at a level where they're confident" that it has enough white phosphorous supplies, she said, even though it is the Army's sole producer of white phosphorus ammunition in the Western Hemisphere.

Monday's warehouse fire was not related to the disposal of chemical weapons currently being performed at the Arsenal, Hathaway said.

The fire occurred in the production area of the installation near the Warbritton Gate, was under control an hour after it was discovered and then burned itself out at about 5 p.m.

No injuries were reported.

Meanwhile Tuesday, the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility announced that 761 nerve agent GB rockets have been eliminated since May 31. The total project has disposed of 8,831 GB rockets.

The update also said that the liquid incinerator eliminated 8,796 pounds of GB in the week. So far, 80,016 pounds of GB has been destroyed.