HERMISTON, Ore. (AP) -- A fire sparked during the dismantling at the Umatilla Chemical Depot of M55 rockets containing the nerve agent sarin was extinguished within seconds and caused no injuries or damage, officials said.
Friction from a blade chopping rockets caused the Thursday fire, said Doug Hammrick, site manager for the Washington Demilitarization Company, the subcontractor operating a facility that is in the process of destroying the chemical arsenal at the U.S. Army depot.
He explained that a nozzle spraying water on the blade to keep it cool was hit and dislocated by a stray piece of the rocket. Workers replaced the blade and fixed the nozzle, placing it higher than it was to avoid a repeat of the incident, Hammrick said.
Rockets are destroyed by first being drained of the liquid sarin nerve agent, then chopped into pieces before being dropped into a high-temperature furnace.
This was the first fire to occur at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, but similar fires have occurred at other weapons disposal sites, Hammrick said.
``The good news is that the system is designed for that,'' he said.
The depot stores about 7.4 million pounds of deadly nerve and blister agents in a variety of munitions, about 12 percent of the national stockpile.
Incineration of the agent began about a month ago and is calculated to take about six years.
