The Journal of the Fire Protection Profession Since 1877 A REUBEN H CONNELLEY PUBLICATION OCTOBER 1959 Wreckage of Engine No. 5, Roseburg, Ore., F-ire Depmtment is mute evidence of terrific blast which rocked city early on the morning of August 7 ( see story on page 930 )-Photo by Edmund Y. Lee
LY IN THE MORNING on Aust 7, an explosive-laden truck ked in the city of Roseburg, Ore. opulation 12,200), was involved by 6 which extended to it from a near- '/ building. The ensuing explosion ed 13 persons and injured more an 150. Included in the death toll as the Roseburg assistant fire chief, oy McFarland, who had responded n the first alarm. Fire Chief W. E. ills, off duty at the time, was incaacitated by a heart attack while preparing to respond to the scene. Command of all fire department operations then became the responsibility of Lieutenant Donald H. Starmer, the training officer. Sometime after 6:00 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, August 6, George Rutherford, driver for the Pacific Powder Co. of Tenino, Wash., parked his truck, loaded with six and a half tons of explosives, next to the Gerretsen Building Supply Co., 538 East Oak Avenue. Rutherford then walked three blocks to the Umpqua Hotel where he registered for the night. The transport was en route from the powder company's plant, about 7 miles northwest of Tenino, to a road project east of Roseburg on the Umpqua River. Fred W. Munz, controller for the company, said the bulk of the explosive carried in the transpo1t was considered in the industry an "insensi- J I FUNT ST / iwo- ], for OCTOBER, 1959 By ROI B. WOOLLEY tive" agent. Nitroglycerine dynamite, he said, is necessary to detonate it. He confirmed the fact that the load which exploded contained four and a half tons of nitro carbonitrate and two tons of dynamite. Munz further identified the nitrate product by the company's trade name of "Carprell" indicating a mixture of ammonium nitrate, nut hulls and diesel oil. Carprell, it is said, is always used with dynamite and is shipped in SO-pound bags. Part of the load, according to Munz, was consigned to the Denn-Gerretsen firm, the rest to Helser Rock Production Co. in the Roseburg area. According to Rutherford, he had been given permission to park his potentially lethal vehicle at the Gerretsen premises. Roseburg at that time had no ordinance restricting the movement of, or parking of explosives on its statute book;s, although a committee of city councilmen had under consideration at the time a revision of its fire code. The Gerretsen Building was a concrete structure erected in 1924; a wooden extension was added later. An open storage area occupied the remainder of the property extending north to S. E. Washington Avenue. Housed in building and yard were building materials of all kinds, plumb- ROSEBURG ROSEBURG RFPD NO.II- 1000 GPM N0.13-750 GPM N0.12-500 GPM - SUTHERLIN 500 GPM (8) DELUGE -. : CENTER OF BLAST.....:;S :.:.. P..:.; R "' U -" C.:. E_. -""ST.;..; _ --------.c, 0 C G> r 'p (fl (fl :--1 "'""' [ ing, hardware, pumps, fixtures, irrigation equipment and 10 pieces of rolling stock. It was later brought out that a "small" amount of dynamite was kept in the basement of the building and that one and a half tons of the Carprell was to be delivered to the supply company. Rutherford is said to have checked his parked b uck for safety between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. He then returned to the hotel and retired. Rubbish fire Dennis Tandey, an employe of the Nordic Plywood Co. of Roseburg, quit work at 12:30 a.m. Friday. Heading home, he stopped to pick up his wife at her mother's house. As he passed the Gerretsen Building he saw fire in some trash receptacles beside the wooden structure. Tandey stopped his car, directed his wife to turn in a fire alarm, and then tried to pull the burning trash cans away from the building. Mrs. Tandey drove to an all-night filling station a block away, then returned to see what help she could be to her husband. She said she parked in front of the Coca Cola bottling plant, but when flames broke out of the Gerretsen Building she decided to move farther away. She drove around the block, past the fire. The last she saw of her husband, he had an axe in his hand and was b ying to break into the explosive-laden truck, apparently in an effort to move it out of the way of the flames. Mrs. Tandey pulled her car into a parking lot nearby and turned to watch the fire. At that moment the blast occurred. About four blocks east of the Gerretsen Building at central fire headquarters, Assistant Chief McFarland took the first call for the fire at 1:05 a.m. With him as he drove from the station with the depaitment's Engine 5, a 1,000-gpm pumper, was Fireman Lyle Wescott. Darrel Bilow, another fireman on duty at the time, took the house watch and monitored the radio ( all Roseburg apparatus are equipped with radio). Only seconds after leaving the station, Chief McFarland ordered via radio the sounding of the public alarm. He had not as yet reached the fire scene but accurately gauged the situation. Bilow automatically set about dispatching all the department's units, including those from the west side fire station across the Umpqua River. Hard upon Chief McFarland's first order for additional forces, he radioed headquarters: "Send everything you've got. It's a big one!" Those were the last words to be heard from him at the central station. At 1:15 a.m., the truck cargo ex- 931