Just A Car Guy: 1959 Roseburg, Oregon, 1 am, a building fire ignited a truck parked for the night, it was carrying 2 tons of dynamite and 4-1/2 tons of ammonium nitrate. The blast leveled 8 city blocks, and the crater was 20 feet deep and 50 feet wide

Monday, May 20, 2019

1959 Roseburg, Oregon, 1 am, a building fire ignited a truck parked for the night, it was carrying 2 tons of dynamite and 4-1/2 tons of ammonium nitrate. The blast leveled 8 city blocks, and the crater was 20 feet deep and 50 feet wide

Three hundred businesses within a thirty block radius were damaged by the blast. Of those, seventy-two were declared structurally unsafe resulting in major repairs and renovation. Twelve buildings beyond the eight block perimeter were condemned.

The explosion eventually became commonly know as "The Blast."

Pat Sullivan, a bystander very near the Blast site that night related the following story:

"I was about twenty feet from the intersection on Pine and Oak and I could see Don in his police uniform outlined against the truck. Firemen were standing down by the fire truck. A real good blaze was going at that time.

As I was running down, I started to see the sides of the truck starting to bulge and I hit the dirt. Thank God for Korea. And that was the last time I saw Don ... I got hit in the chest with a piece of metal. I started to get up and the suction of the Blast knocked me down again. At that time there were no lights whatsoever. Everything was completely dark except for the electrical cords that were bouncing around on the streets that had been blown down from the deal..."

above, melted coke bottles from the destroyed Coca Cola delivery truck

Civil-defense authorities from "throughout the country" took special interest in Roseburg's efforts following the explosion, noting the small-scale similarity to a nuclear attack. In addition, like many small American cities at the time, Roseburg had had no disaster-response plan. The Blast caused Roseburg and other communities to prepare such plans.