Fatal Blast Comes With Surplus Tank
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Paterson News photo
The quiet of a summer afternoon was disrupted by a violent detonation which shook the Paterson, N. J., downtown business district and was heard at least 5 miles away.
Less than a minute later, the fire department received a telephone call from police radio headquarters reporting an explosion at Prospect and Van Houten Streets, only two blocks from Central Fire Headquarters. A box alarm was transmitted at 1:35 p.m. and Engines 1, 5 and 12, Squad 1, Truck 2, Acting Battalion Chief John Mauro, and I responded.
Upon arrival, the fire fighters encountered employees fleeing the scene of the explosion, injured and in state of shock. On further size-up, the fire fighters determined that a chemical mixing tank had detonated on an outside loading platform between two mill buildings in a large industrial complex.
Blast kills worker
One factory worker was dead on arrival. He had been cut almost in half by a large piece of flying steel and thrown 40 feet from the exploding tank. Two others, covered with purple dye spread over the area by the blast, lay near death in the spray of a broken sprinkler pipe. They later died in the hospital. I special-called a heavy-duty rescue truck and four fire department ambulances to transport and administer to 12 other employees, who were hospitalized. The toll was three dead and 10 severely injured.
The mixing tank, one of two 1400gallon stainless steel mixing vats equipped with Sparger coil, were delivered to the Fabricolor Corporation, a manufacturer of dyes, at 24½ Van Houten Street. The tanks were placed on an outside loading platform less than two hours before the blast. They were checked by employees only 15 minutes before the blast and appeared to be clean.
Ignition occurred when sparks and arcs from an electric welder heated up some high-explosive residue which had contaminated the Sparger coil inside the steel tank. A detailed investigation brought out the fact that both tanks had been purchased from the Newport Arsenal in Newport, Ind., on March 29, 1977, part of a sale at the Newport Army Ammunitions Plant.
Tanks sold as surplus
The Army Corps of Engineers is reported to have sold as many as 75 surplus mixing tanks recently to Young and Posen, a Cleveland demolition company. Chemical components used in the production of bombs, artillery shells, and detonators had been prepared and stored in some of the tanks, Army spokesmen said. The Army Corps of Engineers also stated that Young and Posen had a contractural obligation to render the tanks safe before resale. It is not known if the contractor was shown, or knew, how to make the tanks safe for resale.
Contained military explosive
Specimens gathered by investigators were sent to the New Jersey State Police Forensic Laboratory in Little Falls for analysis. They reported them positive for RDX, a military explosive. RDX, otherwise known as cyclonite and chemically called cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, is a complex chemical, very sensitive to decomposition. Due to its high rate of detonation, it has a tremendous brisance, which was evident in the fragmentation and shattered remains of the tank. The scene looked like a battlefield with countless pieces of steel fragments under foot and several hundred broken windows in the fivestory adjacent factory buildings.
Two steel liquefied petroleum gas holding tanks just 20 feet from the exploding tank withstood the blast. This was the miracle of the day. Had the liquefied petroleum gas tanks failed, the results could have been catastrophic.
