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Titan II SiloDAMASCUS, Ark. (AP) - A fiery explosion that lit the night sky4 like daylight44 rocked an underground Titan II missile silo early today, injuring at least 22 maintenance workers, the Air Force said. The Strategic Air Command would notsay whether the missile carried a nuclear warhead or whether any radiation leaked.Authorities evacuated a large area around the site, routing about 1,000 people mostly in the tiny towns of Damascus, Bee Branch and Gravesville.A spokesman for the state OfficeMunicipal Judge Lindsey Fairley of West Memphis who Tuesdayfound Rflv “RaH” Hill nf Rlvth»vMloof Emergency Services said the evacuation stretched for ten miles north in Van Buren County and five miles south in Faulkner and Conway counties.Physicists from the state Health Department were sent to the scene to check radiation levels.Tom Mahr, a public information officer at SAC headquarters inOmaha, Neb., said his latest information was that 22 people were injured, 18 of them seriously enough to be hospitalized.Sources at the Pentagon said the missile contained a single nuclear warhead, that it was not damaged and that no radiation was leaking.Gov. Bill Clinton said Air Force officials told him that no nuclear explosion had occurred and that none could have occurred in the silo housing the 103-foot-long intercontinental ballistic missile which is capable of delivering this nation's largest hydrogen bomb to a target 6,300 miles away.Clinton, reached at his mother's home in Hot Springs, said officials were trying to determine whether radioactivity was escaping from the silo.“The thing, frankly, is still up inthe air as to whether there is any other problem,*' Clinton said. He said the question of whether radioactivity was leaking was the most significant remaining question, besides the injuries andevacuation.Clinton said SAC officials told him Thursday night that a fuel tank in the first stage of the rocket was punctured by “some form of human error, apparently. Clinton said about 10,000 gallons of fuel apparently began leaking.The leak had been discovered Thursday night when officials spotted “smoke” billowing from the silo, a police dispatcher said. The site was flooded with water to reduce the possibility of combustion.Kline described the leaking fuel as Aerozine 50, which is not as volatileas the oxidizer that mixes with the fuel to provide the propellant.The governor said he understood the missile silo, which is underground, was only rubble inside.Kline said the explosion occurred when a maintenance crew from Little Rock Air Force Base was attempting to neutralize the leak in the tirst stage ot the missile.Bill Langford, administrator at Conway Memorial Hospital, said six people had been brought there. He said four were admitted with first-and second-degree burns. Two were treated and released.Three othefs were taken to Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock. A hospital spokesman said one was in critical condition, one in serious condition and another in fair condition.
Newspaper Details
Blytheville Courier News
Blytheville, Arkansas, US
Fri, Sep 19, 1980
Page 26
Full Page
Clipped by
Arkansas S.
AR, USA 14 Feb 2020
Other Publications Near Blytheville, Arkansas
Blytheville Army Air Corps News
Blytheville Courier News
