County to maintain site of depot explosion
By Terry Murry on Monday, February 8th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
HERMISTON – Umatilla County has agreed to assume the maintenance of the site of the 1944 explosion at the Umatilla Chemical Ordnance Depot once local control of the land is restored by the U.S. Army. Commissioner John Shafer says it’s another step being taken to get the land returned.
“It just would make it cleaner if the Army knew that there is somebody who is willing to take on responsibility of maintaining the site,” Shafer said. “The county said, ‘Yeah, we would do that.’”
Shafer said that when the land is under local control, the Columbia Development Authority will fence the site of the explosion.
“Going forward from there, the county will do a couple of drive-byes here and there throughout the year and make sure that there’s no garbage and debris built up on the fence and no big weeds,” Shafer said.
The deadly explosion occurred 77 years ago on March 21. As workers were unloading bombs into Igloo B-1014, it appears that one of the devices went off and the igloo, which contained 264 bombs, exploded. It will never be known what exactly set off the initial explosion.
The blast took the lives of Kenneth Fraser, Alice Wolgamott, Lance Stulz, Hiram Cook, William Sanders, and Harry Sever. According to reports at the time, no human remains were recovered.
Photo at the site of the 1944 explosion via the U.S. Army
